Copyright content as data: from human creativity to artificial intelligence generated innovation

With the development of digitisation technologies and artificial intelligence, the use and re-use of copyright-protected works as data in the context of modern research capabilities has become a contested issue. This contribution discusses the intersection of copyright and data, focusing on three interrelated questions: to what extent, if at all, can copyright subsist in extracts of works, requiring, in essence, authorization from the copyright holder for the use and reuse of copyright-protected work as data? Secondly, should the copying of works to be used as data in text and data mining processes be considered stricto sensu an act of reproduction at all? And, finally, to what extent should copyright holders retain control over authorising the use of works as silos of data in light of and in relation to the exception permitting certain uses of text mining and data analytics?