Assessment of the Impact of the DSM-Directive on Text+

With its Digital Single Market strategy, the European Commission pursues the objective to turn the 27 national single markets within the European Union into one single digital market. In order to achieve this goal, the European legislator adopted several acts, i. a. the Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single market and amending Directives 96/9/EC and 2001/29/EC (hereinafter: the DSM Directive).

One of the key objectives of the DSM Directive is the introduction of copyright exceptions for text and data mining (TDM). The exceptions aim to protect the competitive position of European research by addressing the legal uncertainty regarding text and data mining. This paper will examine the text and data mining exceptions in the DSM Directive, their transposition into German law and their impact on using collections of text and speech data in the context of Text+ offerings.

The DSM Directive contains other regulations which prima facie might have an impact on Collections, such as provisions on the use of out-of-commerce works and on a new exclusive right of press publishers. A short overview of those provisions and their possible impact on Text+ will also be provided.