“Database” is a term with no precise definition. At its most
generic, a database might be described as an “organized
collection of data”, which is probably, but not necessarily,
electronic in nature. Because these electronic collections have
become so familiar, however, the term has expanded beyond its
purely technical meaning. To a programmer, the term might still
refer to a specific application that’s used to classify data
into different types; but to a warehouse manager, it might mean
a helpful tool that assists in shipping and storage. A privacy-
rights activist might even use the term as a pejorative to refer
a government surveillance program. In addition to ambiguous
real-life meaning, the term is also subject to ambiguous legal
meaning. The U.S. Copyright Office has stated that “[i]n the
terminology of copyright law, a database is a compilation: a
work formed by the collection and assembling of preexisting
materials or of data...”. The 17 U.S.C. § 101 definition of
“compilation”, however, does not inclu