A need for a global text and data mining (TDM) exception
The Slovenian Copyright and Related Rights Act was amended in September. The adoption process was intensely problematic and resulted in numerous solutions at the expense of researchers and educators, while also being contrary to the national open science strategy. The issue was considered in detail by Maja Bogataj Jančič and Sandra Koren in an open access article in Sobotna priloga, Delo.
The positive changes in the amendment are due to the persistence of researchers that were supported by the Minister of digital transformation, dr. Emilija Stojmenova Duh. This resulted in the adoption of a progressive TDM exception.
We need a similar arrangement on a global scale. This is the goal of a group of academics from around the world, including Sean Fiil-Flynn, João Quintais and Carys Craig, who have published a joint opinion piece in Science Magazine, discussing legal reform to promote text and data mining research on a global scale.
The ability to undertake data analytics based on vast amounts of information using automated tools is essential to the right to research. However, copyright can stand in the way. The authors offer an overview of TDM regulation around the world and call for implementation of TDM exceptions around the world. The overview does not yet take the new Slovenian exception into account.
The authors put forward a number of proposals for copyright reform, including a WIPO international treaty to introduce copyright exceptions to permit TDM research across the globe.
ODIPI is organizing ERA KR21 Conference: Barriers and Incentives for Open Science in the Copyright Law that will take place on 2 December, 2024 at Hotel Four Points by Sheraton (Mons) in Ljubljana and also online.
The District Court of Hamburg ruled in the case of Kneschke v. LAION e.V. that LAION did not infringe the copyright of photographer Kneschke, as the use of his photograph was covered by the exception for text and data mining (TDM) for scientific purposes.
“Can copyright bring artificial intelligence to its knees? Which other circumstances may cause that the “making” of generative AI can dramatically change in the (near) future. This short paper presents potential challenges that copyright poses to the training of the machines on large amount of data. Different jurisdictions address these issues differently. In the USA the legality of these activities is tested in several court cases. Do gentlemen’s agreements and pragmatic symbiosis known from the “search engines business model” provide sufficient basis and/or incentive for the business model of “making” generative AI business model as well?