Student Projects:Database Protection:Conclusion

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We've examined a number of forms that database protection has taken and may take in the future, in both the US and the EU. Each of these implementations has its good and bad points.

(Damon's stuff)

The EU's Database Directive has come under fire from many groups concerned about its effects. Libraries are concerned that it may prevent them from preserving data and making it available to the public. Scientists fear that the Directive keeps them from making use of and republishing data in their research. Based on the letter of the Directive as it stands today, these concerns are well-founded.

However, recent case law has given these groups some hope that the EU's highest court feels that the Directive's protection goes too far. Also, official analyses of the Directive point out some flaws that may well be addressed when the EU meets formally in 2006 to discuss amending the Directive. Though the Directive currently presents some very real concerns, some of its most drastic provisions may not be around forever.

Don's stuff here

Database protection as implemented by the HIPAA is being seen at the clinical research level as a cost of doing business, an administrative burden foisted upon the researcher by his institution to insure that the researcher is behaving ethically with regard to patient health information. Ethical researchers understand the aim of HIPAA but its implementation confounds the already difficult task of conducting publicly funded clinical trials. It seems evident that while HIPAA may provide some future benefit to the clinical researcher he has little hope that this will actually be the case.

My conclusion then is that the cost of HIPAA implementation is greater than the derived benefit in the minds of clinical researchers. I would say that this imbalance is the cause of the researchers’ negativity toward HIPAA.

Elijah's and Charistel's stuff here

Several pieces of current and proposed database protection legislation make it very difficult for scientists and other groups to perform their work. These kinds of database protection have enjoyed some favor in recent years. The opposition to these kinds of protection is making itself heard, however, and support for the most extreme forms of database protection may be fading.