Standardisation in the area of innovation and technological development, notably in the field of Texte and Data Mining

Report published – Independent Expert Group on Text and Data Mining | 04 April 2014

A group of independent experts headed by Professor Ian Hargreaves has today released its report on Text and Data Mining (TDM) for research. TDM is an important technique for analysing and extracting new insights and knowledge from the exponentially increasing store of digital data (‘Big Data’).The Expert Group report provides insight into the wider context of TDM, including standardisation in the area of innovation and technological development. Its findings are a contribution to developing the international competitiveness of the European Union’s research base in the digital age.

Executive summary

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Conclusions

From the analysis in this paper, we can draw the following analytical conclusions about TDM and the challenge it presents to policymakers in Europe:
– Text and data mining is an important research technique which is certain to become more important as researchers acquire the skills and the technology to address and investigate datasets of increasing
size, complexity and diversity in all media: text, numbers, images, audio files and in any other form.
– TDM represents a significant economic opportunity for Europe. Prolific use of TDM would add tens of billions of Euros in value to the EU’s aggregate GDP. This would result chiefly from higher productivity among researchers and from the effects (‘externalities’) of increased levels of research.
– At present, the use of TDM tools by researchers in Europe appears to be lower, and probably significantly lower, than is the case in the United States and some other countries in the Americas and Asia. This probably reflects, among other factors, disadvantages created by the European legal framework with regard to TDM.
– The European legislator needs to re-consider and reform the EU’s legal framework with regard to copyright, database protection and possibly data privacy, in order to support the international competitiveness of Europe’s research base.
– There is a serious risk that Europe’s relative competitive position as a research location for the exploitation of ‘Big Data’ will deteriorate further, if steps are not taken to address the issues discussed in this
report. The results of this might well include a loss of talent and a loss of investment to more favourable research locations.

In response to this analysis, the Expert Review group proposes three action points:

1. We welcome initiatives to make licensing of works for the purpose of text and data mining easier. In the short term, these will add value to the economy and help to build the skills-base and culture necessary for successful ‘big data’ research in the digital economy. This activity, however, should be seen as a prologue to legal reform, not an end in itself.
2. A specific and mandatory exception to remove text and data mining for scientific purposes from the reach of European copyright and database law should be drafted. This should be regarded as a short-term amelioration, in the event that our third proposal, below, cannot make timely progress.
3. The best approach to reform, aimed at securing a competitive legal framework for European research, is to establish a durable distinction in European law between copyright’s longstanding and legitimate role in protecting the rights of authors of ‘expressive’ works and copyright’s questionable role in the digital age of presenting a barrier to modern research techniques and so to the pursuit of new knowledge. This initiative should be at the heart of a new copyright directive in Europe, following the consultations currently being undertaken by the European Commission. The legal analysis in this report offers more than one route via which a reform of this kind might be pursued; for example by introducing a suitable ‘interpretative instrument’ into a new Copyright Directive. We also urge the legislator, including the European Parliament, to ensure that the currently proposed reform of Europe’s data protection laws avoids the unintended consequence of creating further impediments to the work of scientific researchers. We make these recommendations in the interests of the international competitiveness of the European Union’s research base.