IANAL, but I found some testimony from the US Copyright office regarding this. http://www.copyright.gov/docs/regstat092303.html http://www.copyright.gov/docs/r

IANAL, but I found some testimony from the US Copyright office regarding this. http://www.copyright.gov/docs/regstat092303.html http://www.copyright.gov/docs/regstat092303.html Excerpt: In the terminology of the copyright law, a database is a “compilation.” The Copyright Act defines a compilation as “a work formed by the collection and assembling of preexisting materials or of data....” (1) Compilations were protected as “books” as early as the Copyright Act of 1790.