Proposed TDM Exception Remains Too Narrow

The European Commission’s proposed exception for Text and Data Mining remains too narrow and should be changed so that anyone with lawful access to content can use technology to read that content. In addition, the proposals should be modified so that scientists can ensure their results are reproducible and verifiable.

This was the message which LIBER’s Copyright Working Group sent to Brussels on Monday, after the Consolidated Presidency compromise proposal on the ‘Copyright in the Digital Single Market’ was made public last week.

LIBER joined fellow research organisations CESAER, EUA, LERU, Science Europe and SPARC Europe in sending the following reaction:

Although we see several improvements to the text in the recitals, our main concern is the narrow scope of beneficiaries of the Text and Data Mining exception, which remains a major flaw of the proposed directive and compromise text.

We are fundamentally against a provision prohibiting people and organisations with lawful access to content to use the help of technology to read this content. A copy made for the act of Text and Data Mining is not aimed for communication or distribution of the work as such but only for a quicker reading and analysis of the facts and data, and information is not protected by copyright or by the sui generis database right. Such an act hence does not affect the normal exploitation of the work in any way.

We support the copyright holders’ right to charge both for access and for services offered around TDM of works. However, they should not be given a monopoly of this market based on copyright law. This is fundamentally wrong and damaging for our knowledge based economy.

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