## Facts

- BUC International Corporation operated BUCNET, a private, password-protected database used by yacht brokers to create and share vessel listings.
- BUC developed and used a standardized listing “form and format” with specific section headings, grouped categories, and an overall layout controlling the selection, order, and arrangement of listing fields.
- BUC registered a copyright covering the compilation’s “selection, coordination, and arrangement” (not the underlying yacht facts).
- International Yacht Council Limited (IYC) launched a competing online yacht-listing service, using MLS Solutions, Inc. (MLS) to design and maintain the database and website.
- MLS obtained listings from brokers, including brokers who were BUCNET licensees; evidence showed brokers copied BUCNET listings and provided them to MLS, which posted them on IYC’s website.
- BUC discovered thousands of IYC listings whose structure and arrangement mirrored BUCNET listings and sued for copyright infringement in the Southern District of Florida.
- After a jury trial, the district court instructed that infringement could be found if protectable elements of BUC’s compilation and defendants’ compilation were “substantially similar”; the jury found for BUC, and the court entered judgment and injunctive relief.
- IYC and MLS appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether BUC’s standardized headings and layout for yacht listings reflected sufficient originality to be protected as a factual compilation under federal copyright law.
2. Whether infringement of a factual compilation requires proof of “virtual identity,” or whether “substantial similarity” of protectable elements is sufficient.
3. Whether the district court properly applied the presumption of validity from copyright registration and permitted copying to be inferred from access and similarity.

## Decision

- The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the judgment for BUC.
- The court held BUC’s selection and arrangement of headings and fields in the listings contained enough original expression to be copyrightable as a compilation.
- The court approved the district court’s use of the “substantial similarity” standard for infringement, rejecting a “virtual identity” requirement for compilations.
- The court found no reversible error in the district court’s handling of validity, proof of copying, jury instructions, or related rulings.

## Legal Principles

- A factual compilation is copyrightable only to the extent it reflects original selection, coordination, or arrangement; the underlying facts remain free for all to use.
- Originality in a compilation requires only a minimal degree of creativity, consistent with *Feist*; routine or purely mechanical organization is not protected.
- “Thin” protection for compilations narrows what is protected (the original arrangement), but does not replace the infringement test with a categorical “virtual identity” rule.
- Infringement may be shown by access plus substantial similarity of protectable elements; direct proof of copying of each expressive choice is not required.
- A timely copyright registration constitutes prima facie evidence of validity, shifting the burden to the challenger to rebut validity with sufficient evidence.

## Conclusion

The Eleventh Circuit upheld liability where a competitor’s yacht listings copied the protected structure and arrangement of a registered database compilation, holding that the proper infringement inquiry is substantial similarity of protectable elements and that registration-supported validity and circumstantial evidence of access and similarity can sustain a jury verdict.


BUC Int'l Corp. v. Int'l Yacht Council Ltd., 489 F.3d 1129 (11th Cir. 2007)