EU AI ACT - Joint statement from European creators and rightsholders

13 March 2024 - Press release

 

We represent a broad coalition of organisations in Europe’s creative and cultural sectors, including music, visual, audiovisual, and literary authors; press publishers of newspapers, magazines and specialised publications, book, music, academic publishers; recorded music, film and audiovisual producers; publishers of films and audiovisual content online and offline; distributors and photo agencies. 

We welcome the approval of the EU AI Act by the European Parliament, and we thank Members of the European Parliament for the essential role they have played in supporting creators and rightsholders throughout the legislative process.  

The EU AI Act is world-first legislation that regulates the development and use of AI and sets an example for responsible AI governance.   

It provides first tools for rightsholders to enforce their rights, including the obligations on providers of General Purpose AI (GPAI) to make available a sufficiently detailed summary of the works used for training their models, to retain detailed technical documentation and to demonstrate they have put in place policies to comply with EU copyright law, regardless of where they acquired data or trained and developed their AI models. 

While these obligations provide a first step for rightsholders to enforce their rights, we call on the European Parliament to continue to support the development of responsible and sustainable AI byensuring that these important rules are put into practice in a meaningful and effective way, aligned with the objectives of the regulation.  
 
To achieve this, it is essential that the template for the sufficient level of information that General Purpose AI model providers must make available enables effective exercise and enforcement of copyright and other fundamental rights, and that creative sectors and rightsholders are formally and directly involved in its drafting.

 

LIST OF SIGNATORIES  

CEPI, the European Audiovisual production Association, is the voice of independent production in Europe since 1990. Today CEPI represents 19 national film and audiovisual Production associations from 17 European countries, as well as other organisations such as the Pan-European Association of Animation. CEPI role is to represent the interests of independent producers and foster a strong, independent film and television production sector.  

CEPIC, the International Association of the Visual Media Licensing Industry, federates 600 picture agencies and photo libraries in 20 countries across Europe, both within and outside the European Union. CEPIC's membership includes large and smaller stock photo libraries, major photo news agencies, art galleries and museums, video companies.   

CISAC (International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers) is the world’s leading network of authors’ societies. With 225 member societies in 116 countries, CISAC represents more than 5 million creators from all geographic areas and all artistic repertoires; music, audiovisual, drama, literature and visual arts.   

EMMA, the European Magazine Media Association, is the unique and complete representation of Europe’s magazine media, which is today enjoyed by millions of consumers on various platforms, encompassing both paper and digital formats. EMMA represents 15,000 publishing houses, publishing 50,000 magazine titles across Europe in print and digital.   

ENPA, the European Newspaper Publishers’ Association is the largest representative body of newspaper publishers across Europe. ENPA advocates for 16 national associations across 13 European countries and is a principal interlocutor to the EU institutions and a key driver of media policy debates in the European Union.

EPC, the European Publishers Council, brings together Chairmen and CEOs of Europe’s leading media groups representing companies with newspapers, magazines, online publishing, journals, databases, books and broadcasting, communicating with Europe’s legislators on issues that affect freedom of expression, media diversity, democracy and the health and viability of media in the EU.  

EUROCINEMA represents the interests of audiovisual and cinematographic producers at a European and international level concerning issues directly or indirectly affecting film and audiovisual production. 

FEP, the Federation of European Publishers, represents 29 national books and learned journals publishers’ associations of the European Union and the European Economic Area.  

FIAPF (International Federation of Film Producers Associations) represents the legal, regulatory and business interests shared by the film and audiovisual producers’ community worldwide. Its membership covers 37 producers’ national associations from 29 countries on five continents – including 20 associations established in Europe.     

GESAC, the European Grouping of Societies of Authors and Composers, comprises 32 authors’ societies from across the European Union, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland. As such, it represents over one million creators and rights holders in the areas of musical, audio-visual, visual, and literary and dramatic works.   

ICMP is the global trade association for the music publishing industry. ICMP represents approximately 90% of the world’s commercially released music. Its membership comprises 76 different national associations, across 6 continents, as well as the Major and independent music publishing companies.   

IFPI, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, is the voice of the recording industry worldwide. IFPI and its National Group network represents the interests of some 8,000 members across the globe.  

IVF (International Video Federation). The members of the International Video Federation are associations representing businesses active in all segments of the film and audiovisual sector in Europe.  The IVF's membership is thus involved across development, production, marketing, and distribution of all types of films and audiovisual works, ranging from feature-length films, short films, documentaries, television drama and other audiovisual content, as well as the publication of such content on digital media (DVD, Blu-ray, etc.) and through all online channels ranging from transactional (TVOD/EST), subscription (SVOD) and advertisement-based (AVOD and FAST) distribution models. 

IMPALA is the European association of independent music companies, representing over 6,000 music SMEs. Its mission is to grow the independent music sector sustainably, return more value to artists, promote diversity and entrepreneurship, improve political access, inspire change and increase access to finance.    

IMPF represents independent music publishers internationally. It is the global trade and advocacy body that helps stimulate a more favourable business and entrepreneurial environment for artistic, cultural, and commercial diversity for independent music publishers everywhere and the songwriters and composers they represent.  

News Media Europe is the voice of the progressive news media industry in Europe, representing over 2,700 news brands in print, online, radio and TV, through national associations from sixteen countries. Together, we defend key principles which are vital to us: protecting the freedom of the press, championing the digital future of our industry, and ensuring that the value of content is properly protected.

The Society of Audiovisual Authors (SAA) is the umbrella association of European collective management organisations representing audiovisual authors. Its 33 members in 25 countries together manage rights for over 167,000 film, television and multimedia European screenwriters and directors. The SAA supports audiovisual authors and promote cultural diversity through policies that enable the dissemination of audiovisual authors’ works to the audience. CMOs’ role is to give easy, legal access to those works and ensure authors are fairly paid to encourage further creativity for the benefit of society.

STM is the leading global trade association for academic and professional publishers. The membership is composed of over 140 organisations who are based globally and include academic and professional publishers, learned societies, university presses, start-ups and established players.