Text and Data Mining Exceptions, Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 ss. 53A-53B
European Union (Copyright and Related Rights in the Digital Single Market) Regulations 2021 (S.I. No. 567 of 2021) regs. 3-4, inserting and amending ss. 53A and 53B of the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000
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In force since 12 November 2021.
A copyright and text and data mining (TDM) rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 6 September 2026.
What it requires
- A commercial text-and-data-mining reproduction or extraction from a work you have lawful access to is permitted unless the rightholder has expressly reserved that use in a machine-readable or otherwise clearly communicated manner (s. 53B(1), (3)).
- A reproduction made under the research and non-commercial text-and-data-mining exception must be stored in a secure manner appropriate to the work and retained only as necessary for the purposes of the scientific research, including verification of results (s. 53A(3A)).
- A contractual term that overrides the section 53A text-and-data-mining exception is unenforceable.
If you get it wrong
Private right of actionNo
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
The 2021 Regulations added a new section 53B to the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000: where an author has not expressly reserved, in an appropriate manner, the use of a work for reproduction or extraction for the purposes of text and data mining, a person who has lawful access to the work may reproduce it for that purpose, and may retain the reproduction for as long as necessary for the mining.
A reservation is made in an appropriate manner where it is machine-readable, for content made publicly available online, including in the metadata or terms and conditions of a website or service, or otherwise clearly communicated to persons with lawful access.
The Regulations also amended the pre-existing research and non-commercial text-and-data-mining exception at section 53A by inserting new subsections requiring that a copy made under it be stored securely and retained only as necessary for scientific research, including for verification, and by providing that any contractual provision contrary to the section is unenforceable. A parallel exception for computer programs was inserted at section 82(3)-(5). A parallel exception for subject matter protected by related rights was inserted after section 225A as section 225AA.
When LexLint raises it
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