The new EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market1 (the 'DSM Directive') has been fraught with controversy and discussion. Many have argued it will lead to the death of the Internet as we know it because of its provisions on upload filters and the link tax. Those points are outside the scope of this blog which focuses on a new and potentially valuable right in the data analytics field but you can find more information on them on our related blogs and vlogs.
Article 2(2) of the DSM Directive defines text and data mining ('TDM') as:
"any automated analytical technique aimed at analysing text and data in digital form in order to generate information which includes but is not limited to patterns, trends and correlations".
The ability to legally perform TDM is becoming increasingly important as new methods and technologies are created to perform sophisticated data analytics and provide new services based on such analytics. Technically, most TDM software/activities require a copy of the content to be TDM-ed. Currently, however, in the UK and EU, there is no blanket exception from copyright or database right protection that allows TDM: copying third party text or data for analytics purposes requires a licence from the rightsholder or reliance on the limited and narrowly construed fair dealings defences. (This is in contrast to the...
