In short. An EU mining opt-out expressly reserves protected uses under Article 4 of Directive 2019/790, while the separate scientific research exception remains applicable.
Definition: A text and data mining opt-out is a rights holder's express reservation that prevents reliance on the general mining exception in Article 4 of EU Directive 2019/790 for the reserved use. Text and data mining means automated analysis of digital text and data to produce information, including patterns and correlations.
Key facts
- The Digital Single Market copyright directive makes lawful access and the absence of an appropriate rights reservation conditions of the Article 4 mining exception.
- The TDM Reservation Protocol report provides an HTTP response header for expressing a reservation on web content.
- The AI Act requires general-purpose AI model providers to have a copyright compliance policy that identifies and respects Article 4(3) reservations.
What does the reservation cover?
As of 17 October 2026, Directive (EU) 2019/790 sets the EU framework through exceptions that Member States must provide. Article 4 covers reproductions and extractions of lawfully accessible works and other protected material for mining. Its scope includes commercial mining, as recital 18 explains. Copies made under this exception may be retained for as long as necessary for mining.
Article 4(3) makes that exception conditional on rights holders having left the relevant use unreserved. For publicly available online content, recital 18 specifies machine-readable means, including metadata and website or service terms and conditions. It also states that a mining reservation should leave other uses unaffected.
Article 3 provides a separate exception for research organisations and cultural heritage institutions carrying out scientific research on material they can lawfully access. Article 4(4) expressly preserves that exception.
How can a website express the choice?
The TDM Reservation Protocol, a technical specification for communicating mining reservations, includes this HTTP response header in its report dated 10 May 2024:
tdm-reservation: 1
Within the protocol, the value 1 signals that mining rights are reserved. The header accompanies the response for the resource concerned, so the signal is associated with content delivered by the server. This gives a website operator a concrete implementation to inspect in the server's response headers.
The report is a Community Group specification hosted by W3C. It is outside the W3C Standards Track. Its header example provides a technical expression of the choice; the directive supplies the legal conditions for an appropriate reservation.
Why does this matter for AI model training?
Under AI Act Article 53(1)(c), providers of general-purpose AI models must put a policy in place to comply with EU copyright law. This includes identifying and complying with rights reservations through state-of-the-art technologies. Recital 105 connects mining to the retrieval and analysis of training content and says providers need authorisation to mine works whose rights are appropriately reserved.
Article 113 makes the chapter containing these obligations applicable from 2 August 2025. Article 111(3) gives providers of models placed on the market before that date until 2 August 2027 to comply. A website's reservation therefore concerns a legally defined use of its protected content and connects to a specific provider obligation.
Related terms
- TDM Reservation Protocol
- TDM-Reservation header
- Lawful access for text and data mining
- Research text and data mining exception
- AI Act Article 53
FAQ
Can you reserve rights while offering a mining licence?
Yes. The AI Act's recital 105 explains that providers need authorisation to mine appropriately reserved works. A reservation leaves room for the rights holder to grant that authorisation.
Can your reservation exclude scientific research under Article 3?
Article 4(4) of the copyright directive preserves Article 3. That research exception has its own conditions concerning eligible institutions, scientific purpose and lawful access.
Where can you check the header signal?
Inspect the HTTP response headers for the content concerned. The TDM Reservation Protocol report places the reservation header in responses to GET or HEAD requests.
Sources
- European Parliament and Council, "Directive (EU) 2019/790", 17 April 2019
- Text and Data Mining Reservation Protocol Community Group, "TDM Reservation Protocol (TDMRep)", 10 May 2024
- European Parliament and Council, "Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (Artificial Intelligence Act)", 13 June 2024
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