Creative Commons 4.0 licenses: a sui generis challenge?

The Sui Generis Database Rights (SGDR) protection grants an exclusive right on databases when a substantial investment is required to collect and arrange the database contents. Since this specific protection makes any re-use of such contents impossible without an explicit permission, therefore directly impacting on the exploitation of Open Data, managing SGDR (where exsisting) – e.g. by adopting a license - is crucial for any public body who wants to make its data available for re-use. The paper examines the new features introduced in the 4.0 version of the Creative Commons Public Licenses, with particular attention to the treatment of SGDR to describe the suitability of the 4.0 version in the specific field of Open Data licensing and re-use. The evaluation has been conducted in light of the current EU legal framework on database rights, also considering the issue of interoperability with other existing database licenses.