EARE’s position on the JURI Committee Report on the Copyright Directive

Download the statement here: EARE_Statement_JURI Vote_Copyright Directive

The European Alliance for Research Excellence (EARE) is very concerned by the results of the vote that took place in the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs (JURI) Committee on the Copyright directive on 21 June, particularly the compromise amendments adopted on Text and Data Mining (TDM).

We are highly disappointed in the adopted text, especially when the rapporteur’s first Compromise Amendment of article 3 was very encouraging. We believe that the adopted TDM exception will do more harm than good on innovation at the EU-level. We regret that Europe decided to look at the past rather than the future despite its stated objective to complete the Digital Single Market.

Ahead of the expected vote in Plenary on the mandate to enter into trialogues next week, we would like to once again remind Members of the European Parliament of the foundational role that TDM plays in Artificial Intelligence (AI). TDM is a building block for both machine and deep learning and should not be impeded at times when Europe’s ambitions are to become a global leader in AI.

As it stands, the Copyright reform will drive innovation out of Europe. We regret that Europe chose a path that will hinder innovation for European-based businesses, at a time when AI-powerhouses such as Japan, Singapore, Australia, China or the US are removing legislative barriers, which will incentivize the most innovative companies to relocate within their borders.

That is why we are today calling on Members of the European Parliament to reject the mandate to enter into interinstitutional negotiation at the next Plenary session, in order to review the current TDM exception and give a chance to policy-makers to adopt future-proof, broad mandatory exception for TDM for all parties who have lawful access to the underlying work. We are convinced that it is only with such an exception that Europe will be able to live up to its ambitions of becoming a global leader in AI, machine learning and data analytics.

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About EARE

The European Alliance for Research Excellence (EARE) is a coalition supported by BSA | The Software Alliance, Allied for Startups, Research Libraries UK, SCONUL (Society of College, National and University Libraries) and UCL (University College London) Library, advocating for the EU to live up to its innovation potential in the digital economy. The coalition is calling on the EU to include a broader TDM exception in its current copyright reform.

For questions please contact:  Mathilde Bouvier – eare@apcoworldwide.com – www.eare.eu  – +32 2 645 9852