DIGITALEUROPE Position on Text and Data Mining

KEY MESSAGES

1. Text and data mining has an important potential for Europe’s growth and competitiveness.

Text and Data Mining (TDM) is an evolving and burgeoning area of innovation. As such, it is unpredictable and likely to continue to evolve. Threats of copyright assertion will inevitably lead to slower and more difficult take up in Europe, and a competitive gap.

2. As technology companies, we believe the right to read, i.e. when a person has lawful access to content, includes the right to mine.

Once one has obtained lawful access to copyright protected content, the mining of this content is completely outside the realm of copyright. Therefore, a specific permission for TDM is not actually needed from a copyright perspective.

3. The EU’s approach should not state or imply that text and data mining infringe copyright rules.

In particular, should a distinction be made between research and other uses of TDM, it should remain clear that TDM is not an infringement of copyright.

4. The EU should rather ensure that a clear legal framework encourages the use of computing techniques such as text and data mining in Europe.

We call on the Commission to ensure that the review of EU copyright rules will not impede data-driven innovation based on text and data mining.