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Brussels, 10 March 2026 – By adopting its report on generative AI and copyright, Parliament takes a firm position in favour of strong protection for creators and calls for targeted legislative action to address the massive and ongoing unfairness in this fast-growing market.

“As the European Commission is currently assessing the EU copyright framework, the Parliament has clearly recognised the need for action to ensure fairness, transparency and appropriate remuneration for creators in the generative AI market”, said Adriana Moscoso del Prado, General Manager of GESAC. “This political report also stresses the importance of safeguarding the integrity of the European legal system, which must apply equally to all services operating in the EU, while ensuring a level playing field for Europe’s innovative businesses.”

Moscoso del Prado added: “This vote adds to the growing recognition at EU level of what is at stake: innovation, fairness and cultural sovereignty must go hand in hand. To achieve the right balance between protection and innovation, authors’ societies must play a central role, creating a sustainable licensing market that ensures appropriate remuneration for creators across the GenAI value chain, and streamlined rights clearance for the operation and use of GenAI services in the cultural market.”

Brussels, 9 February – 23 organisations from across Europe’s music sector call for a strong budget and an ambitious sectoral approach for music within the future AgoraEU programme.

The proposed increased budget allocated to the programme offers a unique opportunity to reintroduce a sectoral approach to address the specific challenges of the European music sector. Such a sectoral approach is included in the current Creative Europe regulation but is now missing in the AgoraEU proposal as it stands.

Confronted with generative AI putting at risk creators’ and right holders’ works and revenues, the consequences of rising market concentration, European repertoire struggling to travel across borders, and the lack of transparency of algorithms and playlists in music streaming, the sector is confronted with significant challenges and major disruption.

European music creators and EU policymakers gather to discuss how to end coercive buy-out practices as the EU anticipates dedicated rules to strike fair balance in copyright framework.

Brussels, 3 February 2026 – This afternoon, European songwriters and composers as well as representatives of their collective management organisations came together with key EU decision makers to address the long-standing and growing phenomenon of coercive buy-out practices affecting audiovisual composers.

Hosted by Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Leire Pajín (S&D, Spain) in the European Parliament, this high-level meeting jointly organised by the European Composer and Songwriter Alliance (ECSA) and the European Grouping of Societies of Authors and Composers (GESAC), provided a platform for authors to share their experiences and rally EU policy makers on  the necessary measures against these harmful contractual practices.

Buy-out practices in contracts force music authors to give away all or part of their rights in exchange for a typically low one-time upfront payment. This means that they lose the control of their rights and any opportunity to be fairly remunerated from any of the exploitations of their works in the future.

Despite previous efforts from ECSA and GESAC to tackle such practices, buy-out clauses in contracts still persist and strongly affect music authors’ livelihoods. Often imposed by non-European global players – mainly US-based VOD platforms – such clauses circumvent EU law and its principle of appropriate and proportionate remuneration. 

In today’s geopolitical context, strengthening European sovereignty and ensuring EU law applies to all market players is more important than ever. Global digital giants, mainly based outside the EU, must not be allowed to circumvent European law. Europe is built on values and principles – fairness, transparency, and respect for creators’ rights – which must continue to guide EU policymaking in the digital age.

Brussels, 28 January 2026 — The European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) adopted today its report on Generative AI and Copyright, sending a clear and strong political message on the need to protect European creators in the generative AI market.

GESAC applauds the Committee’s strong commitment to addressing creators’ concerns and welcomes its call for targeted EU legislation to ensure transparency, fairness and respect for authors’ rights. The adopted text notes, in particular, that such legislative intervention should:

• reaffirm the full applicability of EU and national copyright laws to all generative AI services operating in the EU regardless of where they are established or developed,
• provide meaningful transparency obligations for generative AI services,
• introduce a presumption mechanism to achieve a functioning licensing market, and
• consider solutions to address the harmful substitution effects of AI-generated outputs competing unfairly with the original works of creators.