Want The Benefits of AI? Adopt A Robust TDM Exception!

If Europe wants to maximise the benefits of Artificial Intelligence, it needs to also adopt a robust Text and Data Mining Exception. That is the message to the European Commission from 23 organisations, including LIBER.

The letter, which can be downloaded here, acknowledges the potential of AI, machine learning and data analytics to contribute to Europe’s economy and increased competitiveness but notes that AI technologies can only flourish if researchers and companies have access to large amounts of data.

We fail to comprehend why, although the Commission accepts the fact that AI and machine learning need vast amounts of data for training, it is currently pushing for a restrictive TDM exception (article 3) within the Copyright Directive that will remove the ability for startups, businesses, or public-private collaborators to use TDM to develop any of the innovations it seeks to foster, because the proposed TDM exception only covers non-for-profit and public research institutions.

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We would also like to point out that the ongoing efforts of the European Commission on the European Open Science Cloud are playing an important role in safeguarding sustainable access to datasets and thus are a key enabling factor for progress in AI. These efforts and considerable investments should not be endangered.

To learn more about LIBER’s work in this area, please see our Copyright & Legal Matters Working Group.