From: Jan Velterop <[log in to unmask]> Date: Fri, 7 Feb 2014 07:28:54 +0000 The existence of the European Database Directive is probably the most relevant here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_Directive Actual text of the Directive: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31996L0009:EN:HTML It doesn't seem problematic for what Marcin says, but Michael may wish to comment. Jan Velterop Sent from my iPad > On 6 Feb 2014, at 23:30, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > From: Sandy Thatcher <[log in to unmask]> > Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2014 13:54:55 -0600 > > Maybe so, but as Michael Carroll cautioned in his post on this > subject, "In Europe, the legal situation is more complicated because > of database rights and the absence of fair use." > > Sandy Thatcher > > > >> From: Marcin Wojnarski <[log in to unmask]> >> Date: Wed, 5 Feb 2014 15:10:38 +0100 >> >> As a data mining specialist, I've followed the different discussions >> about mining scholarly publications for some time already, and I've >> noticed that there is a big confusion about the legal nature of text >> mining and the true origin of restrictions related to it. >> >> 1) Restrictions imposed on text mining are technical, not legal. >> Publishers impose technical limits on how much content can be >> downloaded in a given period of time, and if someone downloads too >> much, the university may get cut off from publisher's servers. This is >> regulated legally, of course, but only in the agreement signed between >> the university and the publisher, not by general law, the least by >> copyright. What exact terms are signed is a matter of mutual agreement >> between parties - they can agree on whatever they want - so blaming >> copyright for limited bandwidth to publisher's server, as often done >> in discussions about data mining of academic papers, is unreasonable. >> >> 2) Restrictions are related to subscription content alone. There are >> no ways to impose restrictions on mining Open Access content, even if >> OA means only "free" OA. Even more: if I get access to a paper >> illegally and mine it, I can only be accused of illegal copying, but >> not of text mining. That's because copyright law has nothing to do >> with mining, these are two different things. >> >> Data mining is related to *information* contained in the paper, and >> not to the paper itself; whereas the copyright protects only the paper >> as a creative work, in its literal and graphical form, not the >> information contained in it. It's important to see the distinction. >> >> It's true what Ross Mounce said that "the right to read is the right >> to mine". I would say even more: mining does NOT need any right. Data >> mining is just another name for collecting statistics. And it's my >> *personal freedom* to collect whatever stats I want, from whatever >> papers I want, nobody can forbid me to do this. Thus, if I'm lucky >> enough to see the paper - on whatever legal basis, or even none at all >> - it's only my business what I do with information that I obtained in >> this way. >> >> Regards >> Marcin Wojnarski >> >> Marcin Wojnarski, Founder and CEO, TunedIT >> http://tunedit.org >> http://www.facebook.com/TunedIT >> http://twitter.com/TunedIT >> http://www.linkedin.com/in/marcinwojnarski >> >> TunedIT - Online Laboratory for Intelligent Algorithms >> >> >>> On 02/05/2014 12:20 AM, LIBLICENSE wrote: >>> >>> >>> From: Ivy Anderson <[log in to unmask]> >>> Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2014 05:32:56 +0000 >>> >>> This short article from Nature News may be of interest to LibLicense readers: >>> >>> Elsevier opens its papers to text-mining >>> Researchers welcome easier access for harvesting content, but some >>> spurn tight controls. >>> >>> Richard Van Noorden >>> 03 February 2014 >>> http://www.nature.com/news/elsevier-opens-its-papers-to-text-mining-1.14659 >>> >>> Ivy Anderson >>> Director of Collections, California Digital Library >>> University of California