My lunchtime news browsing encountered the "Adelphi Charter":
It's discussed in the following articles:
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/comment/story/0,9828,1591467,00.html http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=5032375 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4348970.stm
The following is an excerpt from the Gaurdian article which might be a useful point to apply when arguing against "the US has such-and-such a IP law and is very successful, therefore the EU should have the same law".
"The USA's database industry has flourished without a database right. Indeed on most measures, it has outperformed the European database industry. The same is true of the so-called "broadcaster's right," of marginally shorter copyright terms and so on."
Malcolm.
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