PIJIP is pleased to announce the publication of a joint academic opinion on text and data mining and copyright reform by Science Magazine.

The opinion was organized by PIJIP Director Sean Flynn and Policy Fellow Jorge Contreras and includes as co-authors members of the academic steering committee for PIJIP’s right to research and international copyright project.

In the context of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, and legislatures around the world, deliberating the harmonization of copyright exceptions for various research uses, the opinion presents policy measures that can ensure that TDM research is unambiguously authorized under copyright law.

PIJIP Faculty Director Michael Carroll, who helped draft the opinion, explained:

“Policy-makers who want to promote innovation need to heed our call to remove barriers to computational research by reforming their copyright laws to align with sound scientific practices that are fully compatible with legal protection for creators.”

Signatories to the opinion include: Professors Sean M. Fiil-Flynn, Brandon Butler, Michael Carroll, Or Cohen-Sasson, Carys Craig, Lucie Guibault, Peter Jaszi, Bernd Justin Jütte, Ariel Katz, João Pedro Quintais, Thomas Margoni, Allan Rocha de Souza, Matthew Sag, Rachael Samberg, Luca Schirru, Martin Senftleben, Ofer Tur-Sinai, and Jorge L. Contreras.

Professor Flynn and PIJIP Fellow Lokesh Vyas published a companion blog describing important text and data mining research projects that require uses of copyrighted materials.

For more information on PIJIP’s project on the Right to Research and International Copyright law, click here.