Actually, the US does have one.

The World Copyright Treaty of the WIPO, which the US also signed, enforces in Article 5 that every member country has to have a database law of this kind.

    ________________________

> Article 5: Compilations of Data (Databases)

> Compilations of data or other material, in any form, which by reason of the selection or arrangement of their contents constitute intellectual creations, are protected as such. This protection does not extend to the data or the material itself and is without prejudice to any copyright subsisting in the data or material contained in the compilation.

http://www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/treaties/text.jsp?file_id=295...

> United States of America

> Signature: April 12, 1997

> Ratification: September 14, 1999

> In Force: March 6, 2002

    ________________________

In fact, this fucking treaty is the only reason so many countries even have that at all – the EU didn’t have any Database Law before it was created, and the US threatened (as always) to boycott any country not signing.

To be clear, this wasn't a scraper in the networked computer sense. It's actually a perfect example of how meatspace safeguards don't translate because law is not equipped to handle the nature of cyberspace.

Exactly. You can't copyright facts.

Yes. Google is violating practically every law of this type. They're allowed to do it because they have a lot of money.