Höfundalög nr. 73/1972, Art. 50, Sui Generis Database Producer Right
Höfundalög nr. 73/1972 (Copyright Act), 50. gr., eins og henni var breytt með lögum nr. 60/2000
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 19 May 2000.
A database right rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 6 September 2026.
What it requires
- Do not repeatedly and systematically extract or re-utilise an insubstantial part of a protected Icelandic database if doing so conflicts with its normal exploitation or unreasonably prejudices the producer's legitimate interests, under Höfundalög Article 50.
- Do not reproduce or make available the whole or a substantial part of a protected database without the producer's authorization within the 15-year protection term.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Criminal exposure note
An intentional or grossly negligent violation of Article 50, paragraph 1, is punishable by fines or imprisonment of up to two years (54. gr.); a company on whose behalf the offense is committed may itself be fined.
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Article 50 gives the maker of a catalogue, table, form, database, or similar work containing a substantial collection of information, or that is the result of a substantial investment, the exclusive right to reproduce or publish the work in whole or in a substantial part.
Repeated and systematic extraction or re-utilisation of an insubstantial part of the database is prohibited where it conflicts with the database's normal exploitation or unreasonably prejudices the producer's legitimate interests. The right lasts 15 years from the turn of the year following the database's creation, or, if published within that period, 15 years from the turn of the year following publication.
A person entitled to use a database has a separate statutory right to the actions necessary to access and make normal use of its content, and the right runs alongside, rather than displacing, any copyright the database's contents separately carry.
This article implements the EU Database Directive (96/9/EC); the Act carries no text-and-data-mining exception, since the later Digital Single Market Copyright Directive (2019/790), which would add one, has not been incorporated into the EEA Agreement in a form binding Iceland.
When LexLint raises it
crawls_webtrains_models