ETD

• artificial intelligence
• charter of fundamental rights
• copyright
• european union legal framework
• freedom of expression and information
• freedom of the arts and sciences
• freedom to conduct a business
• japanese legal framework
• right to intellectual property
• text and data mining (tdm)

This thesis investigates how copyright exceptions and limitations (‘E/Ls’) enacted for uses for Text and Data Mining (‘TDM’) are regulated in the European Union and Japan. It adopts the doctrine of fundamental rights as its central perspective to assess the tensions arising from the need to balance research, innovation and artificial intelligence (‘AI’) training with copyright protection. The research adopts a doctrinal and comparative method, analysing landmark legislation and judgements together with relevant academic literature. Chapter 1 lays the conceptual, technological and legal foundations of copyright, TDM and AI, and maps the interaction between the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (‘Charter’), the copyright acquis, and the legislation on data and AI. Chapter 2 examines the reasoning of the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) and the subsidiary approaches developed in Germany, France, and Italy, highlighting uncertainties concerning lawful access to protected works, reservation of rights, model ‘memorisation’, and allocation of responsibility for infringing AI outputs. Chapter 3 uses the Japanese legal framework as a comparative benchmark, identifying convergence in recognising computational analysis and distinguishing informational use from expressive enjoyment. The thesis concludes that Japan may offer a valuable benchmark for comparison, and highlights perspectives for a reformed EU copyright framework to strike a more satisfactory balance of rights under the Charter.