Right Protecting a Database

[Ben]

Hi,

As part of my job I have made an access database to generate a numbe
of reports.

My manager has asked me to look into whether or not an Access databas
can be copyright protected - to prevent the design of the database fro
being copied.

Personally Im not sure this can be done. Id be more inclined t
copyright protect the actual reports themselfs after they have bee
printed. However, I thought I would check to see if it was possible t
right protect the database.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Cheers,
Be

 

[Brendan Reynolds \(MVP\)]

I'm not quite sure if this is a legal question or a technical one - are you
asking about whether a copyright claim on the database is legally
enforceable, or whether a user can be physically prevented from copying the
design of the database or redistributing it?

The legal question can, in the final analysis, only be decided by a court of
law. If you put a copyright notice on the application, if someone copies it,
and if you take them to court, that's when you find out for sure if your
claim is enforceable or not. You can, of course, consult a legal advisor
with expertise in intellectual property law in your country - or, if you're
selling your software internationally, you'll need someone with
international expertise.

Remember that in order to win your case, the work must be original. For some
interesting comments on this subject, see the archived post at the following
URL ...

http://www.google.com/groups?selm=#JFXmDn4#GA.447@cpmsnbbsa02

Physically, you can create an MDE out of the MDB, which removes the
human-readable source code, and prevents opening forms or reports in design
view (but does not protect tables or queries). You can apply JET
user-and-group-level security, which also protects tables and queries, but
is not unbreakable. There are various measures that you can take to make
life difficult for those who attempt to redistribute the application without
permission - there's some advice on this subject at the following URL ...

http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/demo.htm