Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence brings about many new opportunities for our lives, including in the field of culture and creativity, but its applications also raise a number of ethical and legal questions due to their wide-spread uncontrolled and unchecked usage.

The rapid deployment of GenAI services requires targeted EU legislative action to ensure transparency, fairness and full respect for authors rights.

Such intervention should:

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

All our policies

GESAC's actions

AI & authors' rights: start here

Reaction to EP Resolution “Copyright and Gen AI – opportunities and challenges”

Joint statement on AI Act Code of Practice

GESAC's reaction to the European Parliament's vote

GESAC co-signs an open letter calling for meaningful obligations on AI systems

News 24 April 2026

2026 edition of the ALAI European Authors’ Right Award awarded to Michalina Kowala

The 2026 edition of the ALAI European Authors’ Right Award, supported by GESAC, was awarded to Michalina Kowala for her essay: “L’instrumentalisation du droit d’auteur et des droits voisins au service des défis de la transformation numérique.”

News 12 May 2026

GESAC statement on the EU Culture Council discussion on AI and copyright

Brussels, 12 May 2026, GESAC welcomes today’s discussion among EU Culture Ministers in Brussels on the urgent need to assess the EU copyright framework in light of generative AI developments. The political message sent by Culture Ministers across Europe today was strong and clear: Europe cannot build its AI future on the unauthorised use of creators’ works. The growing threat posed by generative AI models trained on copyrighted content without authorisation, transparency and remuneration must be tackled. Member States strongly echoed the European Parliament’s March Resolution [Axel Voss report] and called for a rapid and ambitious EU policy response.

News 10 March 2026

Plenary vote: European Parliament backs legislative action to protects authors’ rights in this new AI-driven environment.

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.”

News 09 February 2026

Joint call for a strong budget and an ambitious sectoral approach for music within the future AgoraEU programme

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.

News 03 February 2026

Creators await legislation against coercive buy-outs

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.