SamoaCopyright Act 1998, compilation-only protection of collections and databases
Copyright Act 1998, No. 25 (Samoa), s. 4(1)(b) (protection of collections and databases)
archived copy
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A database right rule binding private bodies.
- How the hook was established
- express
- What makes it apply
- Content origin
- Obligation class
- Access restriction
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Do not reproduce a collection of works or of data, including a database, whose selection, coordination, or arrangement is original, without the authorisation of the collection's author or other copyright owner, unless a specific exception such as quotation or news reporting applies.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
In the frameworks
- NIST AI RMF
- MAP 4.1Approaches for mapping AI technology and legal risks of its components – including the use of third-party data or software – are in place, followed, and documented, as are risks of infringement of a third party’s intellectual property or other rights.
- NIST AI 600-1
- GAI-RISK-09Information Security
- GAI-RISK-12Value Chain and Component Integration
- OWASP LLM Top 10
- LLM03:2026Excessive Agency
- OWASP Agentic Top 10
- ASI03Identity and Privilege Abuse
- MIT mitigations Draft
- FINOS AIGF
- AIR-PREV-018Agent Authority Least Privilege Framework
- AIR-PREV-023Agentic System Credential Protection Framework
- ETSI EN 304 223
- 5.1.2-6Access the AI system gets to other systems and data sources is minimal and risk assessed.
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
Identifiers refer to ETSI EN 304 223 V2.1.1 (2025-12), © ETSI 2025, all rights reserved. ETSI owns the standard; no ETSI text (titles or sentences) is reproduced here. The standard is free to download from ETSI.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Criminal exposure note
Section 27(1) makes wilful, for-profit infringement of a right protected under the Act, which includes the reproduction right in an original collection or database protected under section 4(1)(b), an offence punishable on conviction by a fine not exceeding 250 penalty units (WST $25,000) or imprisonment not exceeding 5 years, or both, doubled for a second or further infringement within 5 years of a previous conviction.
Penalty structure
Section 27(1) caps a first wilful, for-profit infringement of a right protected under the Act, including the section 4(1)(b) collection and database right, at a fine of 250 penalty units, or imprisonment up to 5 years, or both. Samoa fixes the penalty unit at WST $100 under section 4 of the Fines (Review and Amendment) Act 1998, so the cap is WST $25,000.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Currency
- WST
- Fixed cap
- 25,000
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Section 4(1)(b) protects collections of works and collections of mere data (databases), in machine readable or other form, that are original by reason of the selection, coordination or arrangement of their contents. It defines protected subject matter and imposes no duty to create, keep, produce or review a log or record. Section 31(1)(b), the Act's application clause for literary and artistic works, applies the protection to works first published in Samoa (and to works first published elsewhere and also published in Samoa within 30 days), which is the content-origin hook; the nationality and residence limb of section 31(1)(a) carries no hook value.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Section 4(1)(b) protects, as a derivative work, a collection of works and a collection of mere data, including a database, whether in machine-readable or other form, provided the collection is original by reason of the selection, coordination, or arrangement of its contents. Section 3(2) confirms that a work, and by extension a qualifying collection, is protected by the sole fact of its creation, irrespective of its mode or form of expression, content, quality, or purpose.
The protection under section 4(1)(b) attaches only where the collection is original by reason of the selection, coordination, or arrangement of its contents, so a scraper that extracts the underlying data without copying that original selection or arrangement is not reached by it.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app crawls the web or trains models.
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