James Boyle writes in the FT about the EU’s empirical evaluation of whether the Database Directive, which gave intellectual property rights over the creation of database, is actually helping stimulate the industry.

Using a methodology similar to the one I described in an earlier column on the subject, the Commission found that “The economic impact of the “sui generis” right on database production is unproven. Introduced to stimulate the production of databases in Europe, the new instrument has had no proven impact on the production of databases.”

In fact, their study showed that the production of databases had fallen to pre-Directive levels and that the US database industry, which has no such intellectual property right, was growing faster than the EU’s. The gap appears to be widening. This is consistent with the data I summarised in my earlier article, but the Commission’s study is more recent and, if anything, more damning.

[...]

The Commission coupled its empirical study of whether the Directive had actually stimulated the production of new databases with another intriguing kind of empiricism. It sent out a questionnaire to the European database industry asking if they liked their intellectual property right – a procedure with all the rigour of setting farm policy by asking French farmers how they feel about agricultural subsidies.

Whilst the EU should be commended for its empirical study, and encouraged to do the same for other legislation, such as the new data retention directive, it’s a shame to see them diluting such good work with this weak and predictable industry questionnaire. Still, it’s a step in the right direction.