Long Comment Regarding a Proposed Exemption Under 17 U.S.C. 1201

Abstract

This Comment has been submitted on behalf of the Authors Alliance, the American Association of University Professors, and the Library Copyright Alliance, of which ALA is a member. The comments are in support of exemptions being made for duplication of lawfully acquired copyrighted works in order to facilitate text and data mining. "Proponents seek an exemption from 17 U.S.C. § 1201’s prohibition on circumventing technological protection measures (“TPMs”) to facilitate text and data mining (“TDM”) of lawfully accessed motion pictures and lawfully accessed literary works distributed electronically. Specifically, we seek an exemption to allow copying of these classes of works to create a collection of works on which to conduct TDM. An exemption is necessary because TDM requires creating a dataset of works of interest, which “typically involves digitizing or downloading (i.e. reproducing) potentially copyrighted works in order to perform algorithmic extractions” on them."