Text and data mining within the EU digital single market: ‘Mining’ room for private users

This chapter deals with the issue of text and data mining (TDM) conducted by ‘private’ (in the sense of non-public and non-commercial) users as a legitimate activity under EU copyright law. After the reform by Directive (EU) 2019/790, it might be argued that in EU law the question is not problematic anymore. However, the position of private users is totally overlooked, creating further uncertainty about the actual lawfulness of TDM conducted by single European citizens. In fact, while it is clear that TDM has a primary commercial relevance (even beyond its links to artificial intelligence),we cannot disregard the social dimension of this kind of computational research. Therefore, this chapter explores EU copyright law in order to ‘mine’ a legal basis covering private TDM, without resorting to further reform. In this way, EU citizens could rely on a concrete defence for their freedom of information and speech, all to the benefit of a digital democratic – and thus desirably more and more open – society.