A study on the Exception to the Prohibition of Circumvention of Technical Protection Measures Regarding Text and Data Mining

As a result of the rulemaking process, an exception for “text and data mining for academic research and education.” was newly added in October 2021 in the United States. However, the U.S. provisions to allow the circumvention of technical protection measures are defined in a narrow scope by significantly restricting the subject or substantive scope by referring to European and other legislative examples. While there are no explicit provisions or related precedents in the U.S. rulemaking process, various opinions, overseas legislative cases, and the impact on the relevant market along with the application of Article 107 of the Copyright Act were considered. And in 2024, the exemption was expanded as the existing exemption provisions were effectively working and received positive evaluations.<br/> Since technical protection measures are intended to effectively protect copyrights for digitized materials, the interests of users of works and copyright holders may be in sharp conflict. However, it is highly effective in the public interest to circumvent technical protection measures applied to literary works and visual works for academic research or education under certain conditions. This exemption has been sufficiently validated in the United States over a period of three years and is expected to be maintained in the future. Therefore, it is hoped that by 2027, reasonable exemptions from the prohibition on the circumvention of technological protection measures solely for the purposes of“text and data mining for academic research and education.” will be established in Korea.