Copyright vote result is ‘deeply regrettable’, say research groups

MEPs have voted against proposals to give non-academic researchers the automatic right to computationally analyse copyrighted material, to the bitter disappointment of many research organisations.

On 12 September, MEPs rejected two opportunities to back a broad legal right for individuals and organisations to carry out text and data mining on copyrighted materials. The vote came after months of debate and lobbying, which became so heated that European Commission vice-president Andrus Ansip described it as “astonishing”.

MEP Marietje Schaake, who tabled the most liberal of the rejected text and data mining amendments to the copyright legislation being debated, called the result “disastrous”. She said the European Parliament had “squandered the opportunity” to make the EU’s copyright laws fit for the 21st century.