General
The field of Information Technology (IT) covers such different areas such as IT-agreements, legal protection of software, chips and databases, source code escrow, electronic data interchange, multimedia, protection of (electronic) personal data, and security matters.

There is no specific statutory Dutch law on IT-related matters. However, various statutory instruments - such as the Criminal Code and (a new section in) the 1912 Copyright Act - contain specific provisions with respect to IT-matters. Furthermore, various general areas of law - such as contract law and intellectual property law - are important for the field of IT.

Software
The new section in the Copyright Act 1912 (section 45 hn) is a result of the implementation of the EC Software Directive of May 14, 1991 and came into force on July 7, 1994. In principle, the new section also applies to computer programmes created prior to the date on which the Software Directive should have been implemented, i.e. January 1, 1993. Since the adoption of the Software Directive, the discussion amongst copyright scholars whether and to which extent software should be protected by copyright has been settled to the advantage of the advocates of (extensive) copyright protection.

Chips
Semiconductor chips are, as of November 1987, protected by a separate Act, i.e. the Dutch Semiconductor Chip Protection Act, which is largely similar to the 1984 US Semiconductor Chip Protection Act.

Databases
Databases and their contents currently can be protected under the 1912 Copyright Act. Improved protection is to expected once the EC Commission's proposal for a Directive on the protection of Databases (which has recently again been amended) will finally be adopted.

Criminal Law
On March 1, 1993 the Act on Computer Crime came into force. Said Act penalises, inter alia, "hacking", theft of computer data, fraud by data manipulation and unauthorised tapping and/or recording of data which are being transmitted through a network. Together with the Act on Computer Crime an important change in the Dutch Civil Code has been enacted. According to section 2:393 Dutch Civil Code an auditor has to mention his findings with respect to the reliability of a computer system in his audit certificate.

D. van Oostveen, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, The Hague

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