Copyright Law, compilation protection with no sui generis database right
Copyright Law (Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Law No. 15/2019), s. 15, s. 24
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.
Commencement not set.
A database right rule binding private bodies.
As of 6 September 2026.
What it requires
- Myanmar protects only the selection or arrangement of a compilation of data as an intellectual creation; the contents of the collection are not themselves protected and carry no sui generis database right.
- Reproducing the whole or a substantial part of a database in digital form requires the right holder's authorization; it is not covered by the Law's personal-use exception.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionYes
Criminal exposure note
Reproducing, communicating to the public, or distributing a protected compilation for a commercial purpose and without the right holder's consent is punishable, on conviction, with imprisonment not exceeding 3 years or a fine not less than 1,000,000 kyats, or both (s. 82).
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Section 15 protects, as a derivative work, a compilation of data whether in machine-readable or other form, but only where the collection constitutes an intellectual creation by reason of the selection or arrangement of its content, and it expressly states that the contents of the collection are not themselves protected.
Myanmar therefore confers no sui generis database right of the kind that protects the investment in obtaining, verifying or presenting a database's contents regardless of originality; a scraper that extracts the contents of a Myanmar-compiled database without reproducing the compiler's own selection or arrangement faces no compilation-copyright claim over the data taken.
Reproduction of the whole or a substantial part of a database in digital form is also carved out of the Law's own personal-use exception at section 24, so even a non-commercial reproduction of that kind needs the right holder's authorization once it goes beyond copying the protected selection or arrangement.
The Law's own commencement is deferred to a date the President sets by notification; no such notification is among the sources cited for this instrument, so status is recorded as enacted rather than in effect.
When LexLint raises it
crawls_webtrains_models
Read the law
official English translation of the Copyright Law, Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Law No. 15/2019, WIPO Lex