Content Mining will be legal in UK; I inform Cambridge Library and the world of my plans « petermr's blog

"Early last week the UK House of Lords passed the final stages of a Statutory Instrument with exceptions to copyright. For me that most important was that those with legitimate access to electronic content can now use mining technology to extract data without permission from the owners. The actual legislation took less than a minute, but the process has been desperately fought by the traditional publishers who have attempted to require subscribers to get permission from them. IN THE UK THEY HAVE FAILED IN THIS BATTLE That means that I, who have legitimate access to the content of Cambridge University Library and their electronic subscriptions, can now use machines to read any or all of this without breaking copyright law. Moreover the publishers cannot override this with additional restrictive clauses in their contracts. The new law restricts the use to “non-commercial” but this will no affect what I intend to do. To avoid any confusion I am publicly setting out my intentions; because I shall be using subscription content I am advising Cambridge University Library. I am not asking anyone’s permission because I don’t have to. Yesterday I wrote to Yvonne Nobis, Head of Science Information in CUL ..."