In short. Article 3 requires an exception for scientific mining by eligible institutions with lawful access, secure copies and protection against contrary contract terms.
Definition: Article 3 of the EU Digital Single Market (DSM) Copyright Directive requires Member States to permit research organisations and cultural heritage institutions to make copies and extractions for scientific text and data mining of material they lawfully access. Text and data mining means automated analysis of digital text and data to produce information, including patterns and correlations.
As of 17 October 2026, the provisions described here are those of Directive (EU) 2019/790, dated 17 April 2019. Article 29 requires implementation through national law.
Key facts
- Article 3 requires lawful access and scientific research purposes, with an appropriate level of security for copies.
- The European Commission's copyright reform questions and answers gives subscribed scientific journals as an example of material researchers can mine without seeking a separate mining authorisation.
- The Commission's explanation of the copyright rules confirms that research organisations can benefit when working in public-private partnerships.
Which institutions qualify?
Article 2 defines a research organisation as a university, including its libraries, a research institute or another entity whose primary goal is scientific research, or education involving scientific research. It must operate on a non-profit basis, reinvest all profits in scientific research, or fulfil a public-interest mission recognised by a Member State.
The definition also requires that an undertaking exercising decisive influence over the organisation cannot enjoy preferential access to its research results. Recital 12 includes research hospitals among possible beneficiaries and explains that scientific research covers the natural and human sciences.
Cultural heritage institutions have a separate definition: publicly accessible libraries and museums, archives, and film or audio heritage institutions. Their mining must still serve scientific research under Article 3.
What counts as lawful access?
Recital 14 includes access through open-access policies, subscriptions and other lawful means. It also includes content freely available online. People attached to an institution and covered by its subscription count as having lawful access to that material.
Recital 11 allows beneficiaries to rely on private partners to carry out mining, including through the partners' technological tools. The beneficiary remains the qualifying research organisation or cultural heritage institution. These provisions make institutional status, research purpose and the basis for access relevant when assessing a mining project.
How must research copies be handled?
Article 3(2) requires appropriate security and allows retention for scientific research, including verification of results. Its wording is:
Copies of works or other subject matter made in compliance with paragraph 1 shall be stored with an appropriate
level of security and may be retained for the purposes of scientific research, including for the verification of research
results.
Recital 15 allows Member States to specify retention arrangements, including trusted storage bodies. Those arrangements should be proportionate and prevent unauthorised use.
Article 3(3) allows rights holders to protect the security and integrity of their networks and databases, within what is necessary. Recital 16 gives IP address validation and user authentication as examples and says safeguards should preserve effective use of the exception.
Can a website reserve its mining rights?
Article 4(3) makes the broader mining exception conditional on the absence of an appropriate express rights reservation. It identifies machine-readable means for publicly available online content. Article 4(4) expressly preserves Article 3.
Article 7(1) makes contractual provisions contrary to Article 3 unenforceable. For a website operator, a mining rights reservation therefore leaves qualifying research uses under Article 3 intact, subject to its access, purpose and institutional conditions.
Related terms
- Lawful access for text and data mining
- Text and data mining opt-out (EU)
- German text and data mining exception
FAQ
Can my agency rely on Article 3 for market research?
Your agency must satisfy the institutional definition and scientific-purpose condition described above to rely on Article 3. The Commission's copyright reform explanation places market research among examples covered by the broader mining exception.
Must research copies be deleted immediately after mining?
Article 3(2) allows retention for scientific research, including verification of results. Copies must have an appropriate level of security, and recital 15 allows further national retention arrangements.
Sources
- European Parliament and Council, "Directive (EU) 2019/790", 17 April 2019
- European Commission, "Copyright Reform: Questions and Answers", updated 22 February 2022
- European Commission, "New EU copyright rules", 4 June 2021
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