1. For example, data mining and customer profiling have increased as Internet technology has increased the ability to collect customer data and track browsing habits. See, Privacy Online: Fair Information Practices in the electronic marketplace – A report to Congress, Federal Trade Commission, May 2000 and Online Profiling: A Report to Congress Part 2 Recommendations Federal Trade Commission July 2000.
2. Askanazi/Caplan/Descoteaux et-al, The future of database protection law in US copyright law, 2001 Duke L. & Tech. Rev. 0017, at par. 12.
3. As of 1993, the US database industry offered roughly 5 000 databases. To compare, this was twelve times larger than its next-nearest rival (the UK). Throughout the 1990s, the number of databases offered by US providers grew steadily at approximately six percent per annum. Despite this, the US's relative share of world database production declined. Today, the US produces roughly 7 000 databases. This is only seven times the UK figure, see Maurer, Across Two Worlds: US and European Models of Database Protection, in Putman (eds.), Intellectual Property and Innovation in the knowledge based economy, 2001.
4. For a good general technical introduction of the notion see Bainbridge, Intellectual Property, 2002, p. 214-215.
5. Title 17 of the United States Code, Text revised to July 2001, http://www.copyright.gov/title17/circ92.pdf.