Key Principles

  • The use of licensed full texts in generative AI tools is generally not permitted unless an explicit provision is in place.
  • Specific regulations currently exist only for selected providers (see table below).
  • For all other content, use is either not permitted or the legal situation is not clarified.
  • Open-access content may be used, provided that the applicable licence terms are complied with.

Licensing Framework

The ETH Library enters into licence agreements with publishers and providers that regulate the use of electronic resources in an academic context.

These licence agreements define in a binding manner the extent to which content may be used, processed and shared. In many cases, the agreements prohibit the transfer of content to third parties. This also applies to the use of generative AI tools, in particular when full texts are entered into external systems.

Please contact us if you are planning a project that involves the use of artificial intelligence and is based on media licensed by the ETH Library. The ETH Library provides support with licensing clarifications.

These assessments apply exclusively to ETH Zurich. As licence agreements, access rights and institutional frameworks may vary between institutions, the statements cannot be readily transferred to other organisations. The assessment of the applicable licence conditions remains the responsibility of the respective institution.

Use of Licensed Content in Generative AI Tools (Provider‑specific)

The following overview lists providers for which specific regulations are already in place.

✅ permitted ⚠️ limited ❌ not permitted


Elsevier E-BooksElsevier E-JournalsIEEE E-JournalsIOP E-JournalsSpringer E-BooksSpringer Nature
E-Journals		Wiley E-Journals
Permitted Use✅ ✅ ✅  ✅  ✅ ✅ ✅  
Use with Open AI Tools❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ⚠️  ❌ 
Use with Closed AI Tools⚠️ ⚠️ 

⚠️ 

⚠️ ⚠️ ⚠️ ⚠️ 
Use with Third-Party AI Tools⚠️.⚠️.

⚠️ 

⚠️ .
⚠️ ⚠️ ⚠️ 
Open Access Content✅ ✅ ✅✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ 
Publication of AI-Generated Results⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️
Commercial Use❌ ❌ ❌ ❌❌❌❌

ℹ️ Definitions

  • Open AI tools: External services in which entered content may potentially be stored, analysed or further processed (e.g. ChatGPT, DeepL).

  • Closed AI tools: Systems within an institutional infrastructure with defined data protection and terms‑of‑use conditions.

  • Third‑party providers: External platforms outside licensed content providers and institutional systems.

  • Licensed full texts: Content made accessible through fee‑based licence agreements concluded by the library.

  • Open access: Freely accessible content with defined usage rights (e.g. Creative Commons).

Open AI tools

AI services in which entered content may, under certain circumstances, be stored, analysed or used by the provider for the further development of the service.

Examples: public versions of ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude.

Important: Control over entered content does not remain fully with ETH Zurich. The use of licensed content is permitted only insofar as this is allowed under the respective licence terms of the content provider.

Closed AI tools

AI systems that are operated locally or within a controlled environment and are accessible only to a defined group of users.

Examples:

locally installed AI applications

AI systems hosted on ETH‑internal servers

self‑operated language models

Characteristic: Entered content remains within the controlled environment and is not reused for external purposes.

Third‑party AI tools

AI services operated by external companies and outside the direct control of ETH Zurich.

Examples:

    • ChatGPT
    • Claude
    • Gemini
    • Microsoft Copilot
    • other cloud‑based AI services

Note: For certain services, institutional agreements or specific data‑protection provisions may apply. However, these do not automatically modify the usage restrictions applicable to licensed content.

Enterprise Data Protection (EDP)

A term used to describe contractual or technical protection mechanisms implemented by AI service providers to prevent entered content from being used for the training of general AI models or from being made accessible to other customers.

Examples:

    • ChatGPT Enterprise
    • ChatGPT Edu
    • Microsoft Copilot with Data Protection
    • comparable enterprise offerings from other providers

Important: Enterprise Data Protection governs how the AI provider handles entered data. The permissibility of using licensed content is determined by the applicable licence terms of the content provider. This applies in particular to licence agreements that do not contain explicit provisions regarding the use of AI. The mere existence of Enterprise Data Protection does not in itself confer any additional usage rights for licensed content.

Licensed content

Content to which members of ETH Zurich have access on the basis of a licence agreement.

Derived data

Information generated through the analysis or processing of licensed content.

Examples:

    • summaries
    • structured datasets
    • extracted facts or metadata
    • training data for AI applications

Depending on the licence agreement, specific conditions may apply to the use, sharing or publication of derived data.

AI model

A trained AI system capable of generating, analysing or classifying content.

Examples:

    • chatbots
    • language models
    • image generators
    • search and recommendation systems

Note

In this context, the terms “open” and “closed” do not refer to the source code of an AI system. Rather, they indicate whether control over entered content remains within a protected environment or is transferred to an external service.

The classification of an AI tool within the above categories may vary depending on the operating model, licensing arrangements and contractual agreements. In cases of doubt, the terms of use of the respective service and the applicable licence conditions of the content used are decisive.


 

Use of Open Access Content in Generative AI Tools

Open access full texts published under a CC-BY license can generally be used without restriction with AI tools. This license allows the use, distribution, and modification of the content, provided that the original authors and the source are correctly cited. However, it is important to check the specific l llows the use, distribution, and modification of the content, provided that the original authors and the source are correctly cited. However, it is important to check the specific licensing terms of each open access article, as there are different types of Creative Commons licenses that grant different usage rights. Further information on Creative Commons licences can be found here: Creative Commons Licenses - Manual Research Collection

Provider‑specific information



Permitted Use

✅ Non-commercial research, teaching, and learning purposes.

Use with Open AI Tools

❌ Not permitted, as licensed content may not be transferred to external systems where control over storage, further use or use for training purposes cannot be ensured.

Use with Closed AI Tools

⚠️ Licensed content may be used in closed AI systems, provided that these are operated locally or within a controlled environment and are accessible exclusively to members of ETH Zurich. Transfer to third parties as well as use for the training or improvement of external systems is not permitted.

Use with Third-Party AI Tools

⚠️ Permitted, provided that use takes place within a closed or contractually regulated environment and that licensed content is neither used for training or enhancing the capabilities of the tool nor disclosed to third parties.

Open Access Content

✅ No restrictions for Open Access publications with a CC-BY license.

Publication of AI-Generated Results

⚠️ Results generated or developed using AI may be published and made accessible for research and teaching, provided they do not contain licensed content from closed or CC-BY-NC-ND publications or reproduce them.

Commercial Use

❌ Commercial use of AI-generated content or platforms that use licensed media is not permitted.



Permitted Use

✅ Non-commercial research, teaching, and learning purposes.

Use with Open AI Tools

❌Not allowed if content is reused or shared.

Use with Closed AI Tools

⚠️ Licensed content or parts thereof may be used with a closed AI tool if it is hosted in a local environment or in an external environment that can only be accessed by members of ETH Zurich and participating institutions of the Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries. This includes training an algorithm, testing, processing, analyzing, generating outputs, and/or developing any form of AI tools.

Use with Third-Party AI Tools

⚠️ Allowed, provided the content is not used to train or expand the capabilities of the tool and is not reused or shared with third parties.

Open Access Content

✅ No restrictions for Open Access publications with a CC-BY license.

Publication of AI-Generated Results

⚠️ Results generated or developed using AI may be published and made accessible for research and teaching, provided they do not contain licensed content from closed or CC-BY-NC-ND publications or reproduce them.

Commercial Use

❌ Commercial use of AI-generated content or platforms that use licensed media is not permitted.



Permitted Use

✅ Non-commercial research, teaching, and learning purposes.

Use with Open AI Tools

❌Not allowed if content is reused or shared.

Use with Closed AI Tools

⚠️ Licensed content may be used in a closed AI system if it is operated locally or controlled and is accessible only to members of ETH Zurich. Content may be processed, analyzed, and used for the development of AI applications, provided it is not shared with third parties or used to expand publicly accessible systems.


For larger datasets (>100 documents), from IEEE is required. prior approval from IEEE is required.

Use with Third-Party AI Tools

⚠️Allowed for individual or small groups of content, provided the content is not used to train or expand the capabilities of the tool and is not reused or shared with third parties.


For larger datasets (>100 documents), approval from IEEE is required.

Open Access Content

✅ No restrictions for Open Access publications with a CC-BY license.

Publication of AI-Generated Results

⚠️ Results generated or developed using AI may be published and made accessible for research and teaching, provided they do not contain licensed content from closed or CC-BY-NC-ND publications or reproduce them.

Commercial Use

❌ Commercial use of AI-generated content or platforms that use licensed media is not permitted.



Permitted Use

✅ Non-commercial research, teaching, and learning purposes.

Use with Open AI Tools

❌Not allowed if content is reused or shared.

Use with Closed AI Tools

⚠️ Licensed content may be used in a closed AI system if it is operated locally or controlled and is accessible only to members of ETH Zurich. Content may be processed, analyzed, and used for the development of AI applications, provided it is not shared with third parties or used to expand publicly accessible systems. 

Use with Third-Party AI Tools

⚠️ Allowed, provided the content is not used to train or expand the capabilities of the tool and is not reused or shared with third parties.

Open Access Content

✅ No restrictions for Open Access publications with a CC-BY license.

Publication of AI-Generated Results

⚠️ Results generated or developed using AI may be published and made accessible for research and teaching, provided they do not contain licensed content from closed or CC-BY-NC-ND publications or reproduce them.

Commercial Use

❌ Commercial use of AI-generated content or platforms that use licensed media is not permitted.



Permitted Use

✅ Non-commercial research, teaching, and learning purposes.

Use with Open AI Tools

❌Not allowed if content is reused or shared.

Use with Closed AI Tools

⚠️ Licensed content may be used in a closed AI system if it is operated locally or controlled and is accessible only to members of ETH Zurich. Content may be processed, analyzed, and used for the development of AI applications, provided it is not shared with third parties or used to expand publicly accessible systems. 

Use with Third-Party AI Tools

⚠️ Not explicitly regulated; prompts allowed; use at own responsibility.

Open Access Content

✅ No restrictions for Open Access publications with a CC-BY license.

Publication of AI-Generated Results

⚠️ Results generated or developed using AI may be published, provided they do not reproduce licensed content. There is no explicit regulation on publication; general license and copyright provisions apply.

Commercial Use

❌ Commercial use of AI-generated content or platforms that use licensed media is not permitted.



Permitted Use

✅ Non-commercial research, teaching, and learning purposes.

Use with Open AI Tools

⚠️The use of small portions of licensed content in prompts or queries submitted to AI systems is permitted. However, such use must not result in licensed content, derived data, or trained models being made accessible to third parties.

Use with Closed AI Tools

⚠️ Licensed content may be used, processed and analysed in closed or institutionally controlled AI systems. The development and training of AI applications is also permitted, provided that licensed content, derived data or trained models are not disclosed to third parties or made publicly accessible.

Use with Third-Party AI Tools

⚠️ The use of external AI services is permitted only if control over the submitted content is maintained and no storage, reuse or use by third parties occurs that would be contrary to the applicable licence terms.

Open Access Content

✅ No restrictions for Open Access publications with a CC-BY license.

Publication of AI-Generated Results

⚠️ Results generated or developed using AI may be published and made accessible for research and teaching, provided they do not contain licensed content from closed or CC-BY-NC-ND publications or reproduce them.

Commercial Use

❌ Commercial use of AI-generated content or platforms that use licensed media is not permitted.



Permitted Use

✅ Non-commercial research, teaching, and learning purposes.

Use with Open AI Tools

❌Not allowed if content is reused or shared.

Use with Closed AI Tools

⚠️ Licensed content may be used in a closed AI system if it is operated locally or controlled and is accessible only to members of ETH Zurich. Content may be processed, analyzed, and used for the development of AI applications, provided it is not shared with third parties or used to expand publicly accessible systems. 

Use with Third-Party AI Tools

⚠️ Allowed, provided the content is not used to train or expand the capabilities of the tool and is not reused or shared with third parties.

Open Access Content

✅ No restrictions for Open Access publications with a CC-BY license.

Publication of AI-Generated Results

⚠️ Results generated or developed using AI may be published and made accessible for research and teaching, provided they do not contain licensed content from closed or CC-BY-NC-ND publications or reproduce them.

Commercial Use

❌ Commercial use of AI-generated content or platforms that use licensed media is not permitted.

The ETH Library is in contact with other providers and will update this page regularly with future agreements and conditions.

Contact

ETH Library
Research Support Services and Acquisitions
Media Budget and E-Resources
eressourcen@library.ethz.ch


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