11 May 2023

PRESS RELEASE: AI Act – GESAC welcomes today’s vote at the European Parliament in favour of including Generative AI systems and requiring them to respect copyright

GESAC has issued a press release on today’s vote at the European Parliament in favour of including Generative AI systems.

Read our full reaction below.

The European Commission’s recognition of the value of collective agreements for a better protection of creators in the online market is to be welcomed

Brussels, 11 May 2023 – Today the IMCO and LIBE, the leading Committees on AI Act adopted the European Parliament’s position for the trialogue negotiations with the Council and the European Commission. Considering the latest developments in the “Generative AI” technologies and foundation models that deeply impact the society and raise serious threats on fundamental rights and European values, MEPs rightly decided in the adopted report to include certain obligations on the development and operation of such technologies in the scope of this much needed European AI regulation. In particular, the adopted report is requesting generative AI technologies and foundation models to comply with the Union law and to provide transparency on their training data, which might include copyright protected works, when they generate content such as complex text, images, audio or video. The report is still to be approved in plenary.

Véronique Desbrosses, General Manager of GESAC said “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. Transparency and accountability standards are necessary as regards data sets used to train AI tools that generate new content based on preexisting works of authors. We welcome the positive direction taken in the European Parliament and trust that this will be translated into a clear and effective obligation in the final version of the AI Act.”

She added “Transparency obligation on foundation models and generative AI systems is key both for the public to understand how a content is generated by AI and for creators to see if their protected works are used without authorisation. AI tools can significantly help authors to create new artistic works with more opportunities and efficiency, but scraping of their works without consent and remuneration to create a new and parallel market of humanless content would be devastating.”

Policies

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.

Policies

Music Streaming

Music streaming has unquestionably become the predominant means of enjoying music, replacing traditional physical media and expanded far beyond the live sector by providing user-friendly, high quality, and affordable access to the largest possible repertoire anytime, anywhere, online, or offline.

Songs and compositions are at the heart of this thriving market, which counts 524 million users on subscription-based music services globally, reaches more than 2 billion users including the streaming on UGC platforms, and offers more than 70 million tracks from approximately 8 million artists.

Yet, the authors and composers cannot benefit adequately from this success, and the debate over unfairness of this market is gaining traction across Europe and around the world.

There is a need to look more closely at how songwriters and composers are connected to this thriving economy and what can be done to improve their currently neglected situation.

Read below to find out more about the Music Streaming market.

Policies

Buy-out contracts: a dangerous threat to European creators

European music creators (composers, lyricists etc.) are being forced to forsake thousands of euros in future earnings by draconian ‘work made for hire’ (WMH) and buy-out contracts.

Online audiovisual services and broadcasters that are mainly US-based are forcing music creators to accept such contracts, which enforce a one-time payment in exchange for their rights.

Given the worldwide popularity of shows and series on platforms like Netflix, Amazon, Disney etc., and their replay value, the audiovisual market represents an important revenue stream for creators. Soundtracks alone are part and parcel of series and often attract a similar amount of popularity, massively boosting sales, streams and the worldwide fanbase of their authors.

Read below to find out how video on demand (VOD) platforms and broadcasters are circumventing EU law and what can be done about it.

Policies

Authors’ societies & the collective management model

Authors’ societies are hugely beneficial to both authors (creators), users (platforms and services), and the broader public.

Beyond benefiting these different groups, authors’ societies also support the broader cultural ecosystem by funding and promoting cultural and creative initiatives.

Below are five key benefits to authors’ societies and the collective management model.

Policies

The Copyright Directive

In April 2019, the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market was formally adopted, a change that will positively transform authors’ rights throughout the EU. Each member state now has until 7 June 2021 to transpose the Directive into their respective national law.

This reform is an opportunity to address pressing issues for authors in the Digital Single Market and will promote the growth of Europe’s creative and cultural industries (CCIs) – a major driver of Europe’s economy.

One of the biggest achievements of this new piece of legislation was to address the
‘Transfer of Value’ problem, a priority issue for all European creators.

Below are some of the Directive’s key areas that will affect creators and those who profit from their work.