In the UK, thanks to a recent change in the law, no contract can prevent a user from undertaking TDM for non-commercial purposes on any database they have lawful access to.  So there is no need to check licence terms and conditions.  I think Japan has a similar rule.  But for most other countries, one has to check whether the licence permits such activities.

Thanks both for your replies.

@Charles: I know about the UK exception (something similar is available as you point out in Japan and is currently discussed at the EU level); are you satisfied with it? Especially, with the fact that it allows only non commercial TDM?

@Konstantinos: on the basis of which law? As far as I know, in the EU only the UK has to date implemented the TDM non commercial exception. In all other EU countries to TDM (at least as long as a copy of the original dataset has to be done, no matter how transient it is) you need to seek permission, including for non commercial activities. This applies due to both copyright (original databases) and sui generis database right (non original databases for which a substantial investment was made). You might try to rely on some exception and limitations to copyright, but they usually only allow you to make such a copy for research, for non commercial purposes and many times only of parts (not of the entirety) of the database. Exceptions to the sui generis database right can be even narrower.

Thank you!

UK situation:  ideally, it should be for ANY purposes, but publishers would react furiously if any attempt was made to amend law to that, so I can't see that happening in near future.  As an academic, I am not that concerned by the limitation to non-commercial purposes.  The big problem with the UK exception is that publishers are allowed to restrict downloading if use of the exception causes their systems to slow down. The problem is it's their word against ours that their system is slowed down.  Publishers are introducing restrictions relying on this let out bit of the exception.

On your question to Konstantinos,  as a result of various EU Court decisions, the number of databases protected by database right is much reduced.  To get sui generis protection, there must have been major investment in obtaining, verifying or presenting the database contents, so a database that happens to "fall out" of other activities does not get protection. See commentary on the key case at http://www.olswang.com/pdfs/copyrightworld_sep05.pdf, which concludes that in the EU, a lot of databases do not get copyright or database right protection.

Thanks, Charles, this is very interesting. I am particularly curios about what you say regarding publishers being allowed to restrict downloading if this slows down their systems. I don't seem to find it in the current law, could please point me in the right direction?

Regarding the to extent to which databases are protected under copyright and the sui generis database right (SGDR), while I agree that there are databases which do not benefit from either form of protection, it would not be so optimistic as saying that a lot of them do not get copyright/SGDR protection. In fact, many national and ECJ decisions point to the opposite direction (I have written on this issue and I can provide additional references). What we observed in some studies is that the uncertainty regarding whether a certain database is protected or not operates as a disincentive: since both researchers and data providers are not sure whether a given DB is or is not protected, and they are risk adverse, they prefer not to apply any licences (e.g. CC) in order to avoid any (alleged) liability. This of course stifles the use of TDM (with the exception of course of legal systems such as the UK implementing an exception).

This publication is the concern of librarians Costa Rica in relation to our laws on intellectual property, please follow the link: 

Interrogantes básicas sobre los derechos de autor [Basic questions on author's rights] / Arce-Delgado, José Ruperto. In: Revista Bibliotecas (ISSN 1659-3286), v. 32, no. 1, p. 25-33. 2013.

Link: http://www.ots.ac.cr/rdmcnfs/datasets/biblioteca/pdfs/nbina-21866.pdf

Keywords: - INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY; COPYRIGHT; LIBRARIES; COSTA RICA; CENTRAL AMERICA

The article presents basic concepts of copyright, background and CostaRica's participation in the development of this subject. Two topics online discussion forums, conducted between librarians, on the situation facing libraries depending on their work are included; first, before the legislation relating to copyright and then compared to international conventions to promote the dissemination of information, including educational, scientific and technological. Finally, the interpretation of the act of a librarian, to provide information to the end user and questions among librarians.

Regards.

Gilbert Fuentes

Librarian

Organization for Tropical Studies

http://www.ots.ac.cr/rdmcnfs/datasets/biblioteca/pdfs/nbina-21866.pdf

In all of our projects, we invite them as collaborators, and upon 75% completion (pre-commercialisation) we submitted claims and percentage of contributions for commercialization purpose, and proceed to licensing.   All steps involved our legal unit and 2 steps involved patent agent.