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Home/Regulation Tracker/Directive (EU) 2019/790 (DSM Copyright) — text and data mining exceptions

Directive (EU) 2019/790 (DSM Copyright) — text and data mining exceptions

The legal basis for AI training on copyrighted works in Europe: Article 4 allows text and data mining unless rightholders opt out in machine-readable form, a mechanism the AI Act now requires general-purpose model providers to honour worldwide for EU-market models.

copyrighttext and data miningopt-outtraining data

At a glance

Acronym: DSM Directive
Country or region: European Union, European Economic Area
Extraterritorial reach: No
Current status: In force
Legally binding: Legally binding
Instrument: Directive requiring transposition
Official text: Read the official text

All details 16

Applies to: Industry: Technology, AI developers and research labs, Media and entertainment, Research
Applies to: Type of AI: Training data and datasets, Generative AI services, Large language models, Model weights and artifacts
Who must comply: AI developers and providers, Researchers
Proposed: 14 Sept 2016
Effective: 6 Jun 2019
Compliance deadline: 7 Jun 2021
Enforced by: National courts; rightholders through civil actions
Penalty type: Civil liability, Injunction or order
Penalties: Copyright infringement remedies under national law: injunctions, damages and destruction of infringing copies.

Required actions

Research organisations and cultural heritage institutions may mine lawfully accessible works for scientific research (Article 3) - Anyone may mine lawfully accessible works for any purpose unless the rightholder has reserved rights in a machine-readable way (Article 4); AI developers must respect such opt-outs - Keep copies only as long as necessary and apply security measures

Sources

eur-lex.europa.euhttps://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2019/790/oj

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Directive (EU) 2019/790 (DSM Copyright) — text and data mining exceptions

Required actions

Sources

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