The EU Commission’s Proposal to Reform Copyright Limitations: A Good but Far Too Timid Step in the Right Direction

The European Commission’s planned copyright reform proposes to adapt EU law to the challenges emerging in the Digital Single Market (DSM). The European Commission would like to develop a—much needed—strategy to take copyright into the 21st century and make it functional to the DSM. In particular, new mandatory exceptions and limitations should contribute to improving the digital environment’s creative ecosystem. However, the goal of the proposal of lowering barriers to research and innovation in the EU DSM should be pursued more decisively by expanding the reform’s scope. This reform should be an opportunity to consider also additional exceptions and limitations, reflect on the future design of an opening clause, and achieve true harmonisation of the DSM by declaring mandatory all limitations and exceptions provided in past EU copyright instruments. Against this background, this paper would like to provide a preliminary assessment of the introduction of new exceptions and limitations for Text and Data Mining (TDM), teaching, and preservation of cultural heritage by drawing attention to selected aspects of the reform and considering room for improvement where necessary.