Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000, Database Right
Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 (No. 28 of 2000), Part V, ss. 320, 321, 325
A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.
In force since 1 January 2001.
A database right rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 6 September 2026.
What it requires
- Do not extract or re-utilise all or a substantial part of the contents of a database in which a substantial investment (financial, human or technical) has been made in obtaining, verifying or presenting its contents, without the database right owner's authorisation (s. 321(1)-(2)).
- A substantial change to a database's contents amounting to a substantial new investment gives the resulting database its own fresh 15-year term (s. 325(3)).
If you get it wrong
Private right of actionYes
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Part V of the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 confers a property right, the database right, on a database in which there has been a substantial investment in obtaining, verifying or presenting its contents, whether or not the database or any of its contents is itself a copyright work. 'Extraction' means the permanent or temporary transfer of all or a substantial part of the database's contents to another medium.
'Re-utilisation' means making those contents available to the public by any means, and 'substantial' is judged by quantity or quality or a combination of both. The right expires 15 years from the end of the calendar year the database was completed, or from the end of the calendar year it was first lawfully re-utilised if that comes later, and a substantial change to the database's contents amounting to a substantial new investment qualifies the resulting database for its own fresh term. The right exists independently of any copyright in the database's underlying contents.
When LexLint raises it
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Read the law
Irish Statute Book, official text of the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000