SAA - Society of Audiovisual Authors

It's all in the details: AI and copyright 

We have been working on our responses to two consultations: one on the first draft of the Code of Practice on Transparency of AI-generated content and another one regarding the identification of machine-readable protocols for reserving rights from text and data mining (TDM), a follow-up to the GPAI Code of Practice measure.

For the Transparency Code of Practice, Luisiana spent many hours participating in the Commission's working group meetings on the marking and detection of AI-generated content and labelling of deepfakes. The discussions were highly technical and left us with more questions than answers. While we are absolutely in favour of marking AI-generated content and labelling deepfakes with an obligation for AI systems to provide such marks, we are concerned that authors using AI tools could be burdened if they were considered ‘deployers’. We believe that this code is not the place to define what is an AI-assisted content and how authors should document their possible use of AI tools. This is a larger debate that should involve the authors themselves to a larger extend that in this limited closed forum, mainly composed of tech companies. A second draft of the Code is expected in March.

When it comes to rights reservation, all the methods considered put the burden on the rightsholders, assuming that they have all the necessary information to enforce their rights. These discussions are becoming increasingly technical and risk losing sight of the reality of AI companies' scraping methods, which ignore any reservation method.

Adoption of the Voss report in the Legal Affairs’ committee

Fortunately, the discussions on the Voss report in the Legal Affairs’ committee of the European Parliament were more closely connected to the real challenges involved in the AI and copyright debate for authors. The MEPs involved - Axel Voss, Tiemo Wölken, Laurence Farreng and David Cormand - did a great job of channelling the concerns of the creative community. The report adopted on 28 January therefore proclaims strong principles and calls for action: 

"calls for an additional legal framework to clarify licensing rules for generative AI and to address potential infringements of existing copyright law; insists that such framework should draw up provisions ensuring the effective cooperation of Generative AI providers with creators and other rightsholders, including a functioning licensing market that restores bargaining power of rightsholders and viable protection solutions".

"calls on the Commission to facilitate, through the consultation of collective management societies, the establishment of voluntary collective licensing agreements per sector, where appropriate, as a means to quickly establish a working licensing market that provides a balanced and efficient framework ensuring the fair remuneration of rightsholders”.

The report will be voted in the plenary session of the week of 9 March in Strasbourg.

Next up: Berlinale and the SAA board meeting

In February, at the occasion of the Berlinale, our member VG Wort will kindly host our next board meeting. We will also meet with the leaders of FERA and FSE (the screen directors' and writers' European federations) to discuss our shared objectives for this year. In my role as chair of the board of Cineuropa, I will chair the General Assembly meeting that is traditionally organised during the Berlinale. Annica and I will also attend some of the market events during the film festival, including the EU Parliament's LUX Audience Award event, which will feature a panel discussion with MEPs about 'Creative industries under Pressure'. If you happen to be in Berlin, please contact me!

Recommendations

• Watch the Irish film 'Christy', directed by Brendan Canty and written by Alan O'Gorman. I had the pleasure of seeing it at a screening in Brussels. Although the plot seems sombre, the film highlights the important role that communities can play in supporting their young people, and it cheered me up. It is one of the five films nominated for the European Parliament's LUX Audience Award (you can vote here before 12 April).
• I also recommend watching our Instagram mini-series of video interviews from our Anniversary event. 
• Read Annica's latest 'Meet our member' interviews, one with UFUS AFA Protection in Serbia, and another interview with AZAS, the North Macedonian CMO. See below.
• You can also read Cineuropa's interview with me about the SAA here. 

Best wishes,

Cécile