Photo: cisac.org.
Joint statement from Creative Europe:
European composers and songwriters, journalists, music publishers, visual artists and more are reacting strongly to the EU’s implementation of the AI Act. 40 organisations in the creative and cultural sectors are calling for drastic changes in a joint statement published today.
/ 30/07/2025 / Willy MartinsenAmong the organizations are CISAC, which is the global umbrella organization for artists' rights organizations and GESAC, which represents European human rights organizations in Brussels.
I the statement The EU's recently published guidelines for how the AI Regulation should be implemented are criticized, both the so-called "code of practice» and the template for transparency of training data used in the development of generative artificial intelligence. These documents are intended to serve as guides for AI companies on what they can do to comply with the requirements of the AI Regulation.
Inger Elise Mey is the Director of International at TONO and works extensively on copyright issues in the field of artificial intelligence, both in CISAC and Gesac, and against Norwegian and European authorities. She believes the statement points to critical weaknesses in the EU implementation plan:
– Creative and Cultural Europe believes that the measures in practice overlook the needs of rights holders. They weaken the possibilities to enforce copyright against the extensive and unauthorized use of protected content in the training of AI models. This is despite the fact that Article 53 of the AI Regulation was precisely supposed to give rights holders better opportunities to enforce their rights, she says.
The organizations call on the European Commission, the European Parliament and the member states to intervene and ensure that the AI Act actually lives up to its purpose, which is to protect European rights holders and promote the sustainable and fair development of artificial intelligence.
The cultural and creative industries account for nearly 7 percent of the EU's GDP and employ 17 million people. The organizations warn in the petition against setting these industries aside in the face of technology giants.
The KI Regulation is the EU's first comprehensive regulation for artificial intelligence, and entered into force on 1 August 2024, with phased implementation from 2025 to 2027. The regulation aims to balance the needs of both technology developers and rights holders. The regulation shall:
NOTE: An EU regulation differs from an EU directive in that a regulation applies immediately to all EU and EEA countries, while a directive must be implemented through laws in each individual country.