Scholars who engage in Text and Data Mining (TDM) research face a unique set of challenges. Over the years, the Authors Alliance has worked closely with researchers who engage in text data mining, both to help clarify how existing law applies to their work and to advocate for improvements to make this kind of research easier. This has included advocating for exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a law that forbids people from bypassing technical protection measures on copyrighted works, even when the underlying use is fair. The TDM exemptions enable valuable digital humanities research and teaching that is otherwise impossible under DMCA. Below is more information about our research, education and advocacy related to text and data mining.

  • Text and Data Mining Under U.S. Copyright Law: Landscape, Flaws & Recommendations.  In 2023, we interviewed over 40 TDM practitioners across different institutions and compiled a report to outline and analyze the current legal landscape for TDM research. You can download the full report here.
  • TDM educational resources include slides from the more than two dozen in-person and online webinars, such as this session we led at Princeton in 2024. You can find an example of the slides for these workshops here, and a version of the lecture portion of this workshop is available in a recording here.  If you are interested in learning more about legal aspects of TDM or think that Authors Alliance may be able to support efforts to navigate these issues at your institution (e.g., by meeting with individuals or leading a workshop), please contact info@authorsalliance.org

If you would like to learn more about TDM, check out these external resources: