European researchers have become frustrated in recent years by the restrictions European copyright laws put on their freedom to use text and data mining—two automated techniques for analyzing data—on resources they can legally access and analyze with non-automated means. As part of its recent proposals to reform copyright laws, the European Commission has recommended lifting these restrictions, but only for academics. This is a good first step, but the EU should also allow everyone to take advantage of these more efficient and effective data-driven research methods, writes Nick Wallace in EU Observer.
