John Kelly | Jisc | February 9, 2016
In 2014, the UK government introduced copyright reform which includes an exception which “permits any published and unpublished in-copyright works to be copied for the purpose of text mining for non-commercial research. This includes sound, film/video, artistic works, tables and databases, as well as data and text, as long as the researcher has lawful access”.
UK researchers must still have legal access to the material, such as a database license through their institution. A key point is that the exception includes a provision which negates contracts/license agreements that attempt to override the law and deny text and data mining. This means no more checking each institution’s database license agreements before embarking on noncommercial text and data mining research. However, DRM protection, to “maintain their network security or stability,” is still allowable, and researchers are not permitted to circumvent these measures.
For more, see: “The text and data mining copyright exception: benefits and implications for UK higher education”