EDI Questions Whether Exchanges Can License Data They Do Not Own
Date
01/03/2021
Exchange Data International (EDI) has today released a report that questions whether stock and derivative exchanges have copyright in closing prices, and whether they can license the redistribution of these closing prices.
The report argues that stock and derivative exchanges do not own the copyright in closing prices and nor do they acquire copyright through statements on their websites or in their licensing contracts. Their databases are also not protected by the EU Database Directive, or by a compilation copyright in the US.
It is increasingly clear that no copyright exists in the data and that stock exchange and derivative databases are unlikely to enjoy database protection. Also, antitrust provisions come into play. While an exchange can recover its reasonable costs of supplying data feeds it cannot subsidize its core operations or run a for-profit business by exploiting the monopoly that it’s been granted by legislation or regulation.