TDM exception
Article 4 of the EU copyright directive of 2019: content may be mined for purposes including model training unless the rightsholder has expressly reserved that right in a machine-readable way. It is the legal thread that connects robots.txt directives, Content-Signal, ai.txt and tdmrep.json to something with force: a reservation expressed in one of them can matter in a European court.
What TDM exception does not show
Whether a given operator reads any of them before fetching remains a policy question, and an expressed reservation is evidence of intent, not a guarantee of exclusion.
Terms this definition uses
Article · robots.txt · Content-Signal · ai.txt · tdmrep.json
Related terms in Machine files
The files addressed to machines rather than readers, and what publishing one does and does not buy.
llms.txt · llms-full.txt · agents.md · entity map · entity map parity · machine layer · well-known URI · MCP · agent card · sitemap index · OpenAPI specification · ai.txt · Tool definition · SKILL.md · sitemap origin error · soft 404 on a machine file · tdmrep.json · security.txt · Content Signals · HTTP Message Signatures · changefreq and priority · staging leak · host duplicate
Questions about TDM exception
What is TDM exception?
Article 4 of the EU copyright directive of 2019: content may be mined for purposes including model training unless the rightsholder has expressly reserved that right in a machine-readable way. It is the legal thread that connects robots.txt directives, Content-Signal, ai.txt and tdmrep.json to something with force: a reservation expressed in one of them can matter in a European court.
What does TDM exception not show or guarantee?
Whether a given operator reads any of them before fetching remains a policy question, and an expressed reservation is evidence of intent, not a guarantee of exclusion.
Which area of the glossary does TDM exception belong to?
Machine files: The files addressed to machines rather than readers, and what publishing one does and does not buy.
← tdmrep.json · security.txt →
See it in the full glossary · 772 terms across 19 areas.
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