Lawful Access as a Gatekeeper for TDM in the EU - An Analysis of the Scope of the Lawful Access Requirement under EU Copyright Exceptions

Lawful Access as a Gatekeeper for TDM in the EU - An Analysis of the Scope of the Lawful Access Requirement under EU Copyright Exceptions Synodinou, Tatiana-Eleni Author aut Vrakas, Giorgos Author aut Text xx# 2025 Verfassungsblog 2025-11-17 eng Text and Data Mining (TDM) has become indispensable across disciplines: from medicine, where mining scientific articles can reveal patterns for new drug discoveries, to the humanities, where algorithms explore centuries of literature at once. The EU legislator embedded mandatory TDM exceptions into its Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive. Chief requirement is that TDM can only be carried out on works to which researchers have “lawful access”. The concept of lawfulness, however, is anything but clear under EU copyright law. CC BY-SA 4.0 Synodinou, Tatiana-Eleni CDSM Directive Copyright European Union Freedom of research InfoSoc Directive Text and Data Mining Copyright 342 https://verfassungsblog.de/lawful-access-gatekeeper/ Verfassungsblog 2366-7044 Max Steinbeis Verfassungsblog gGmbH 10.59704/68942fbb2d63e0eb 251117 10.59704/68942fbb2d63e0eb Converted from MARCXML to MODS version 3.7 using MARC21slim2MODS3-7.xsl (Revision 1.140 20200717)