SAA delegation meets Commissioner Micallef on authors' rights and AI
On 15 April, a delegation from the SAA met with Glenn Micallef, EU Commissioner for Intergenerational Justice, Youth, Culture and Sport. SAA Patron Špela Čadež, a Slovenian animation writer and director, shared her testimony of a career with precarious and unstable income, difficult to reconcile with work-life balance. Her experience reinforced the SAA’s message to the Commissioner.
The SAA shared its views with Commissioner Micallef, in particular on the need to help authors receive fair remuneration for the exploitation of their works, not least from AI companies that are scraping the internet and using authors’ works without their consent.Commissioner Micallef listened attentively, stressed that audiovisual content has untapped potential for Europe's competitiveness and promised to raise his concerns on AI internally.
There is no doubt that European film is a vital part of Europe’s cultural capital. However, within the EU Commission, there is an artificial separation between audiovisual and cultural issues, which means that authors and their representative organisations are not invited when the Commissioner for Culture meets with stakeholders. DG CNECT is the EU department that handles audiovisual policy, media, copyright and digital innovation. DG EAC deals with culture, including music, text and cultural heritage, and support to the arts.
The SAA delegation stressed the importance of linking audiovisual matters to culture, particularly in view of the impact of generative AI on the work and livelihood of audiovisual authors.
“AI is like compost: it recycles existing works and creates the compost that can nourish new plants, growing from human creative works.”
Špela Čadež shared her story, telling the Commissioner that when she was a student, people around her tried to discourage her from pursuing a creative career because of the precariousness and unstable income. Being a self-employed author is very insecure and challenging to combine with having a family. Her animated short films have won many acclaimed awards and today she combines her creative work with teaching at the university. Looking at her students and the development she’s hopeful though, as animation, once considered a niche genre for children only, is now a recognised art form for telling stories to adults. Flow by Gints Zibalodis is a good example of this. A co-production between Latvia, France and Belgium, with a budget of 3.5 million euros, the film has grossed over 36 million dollars at the global box office and won the Golden Globe and the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.
Špela told Commissioner Micallef that she cannot know if her works are being used by AI companies, but that she would like to have control over her works and be remunerated if they were used.
The SAA explained that the AI companies are behaving as if it were the Wild West, they are scrapping the Internet without author’s authorisation and remuneration. Indeed, it would be a nightmare for AI companies to ask everyone for their consent, which is where CMOs come in. They can provide the solution by offering licencing.
The EU Commission’s interpretation of the EU’s text and data mining exception is that it is covers generative AI models, which the SAA and others disagree with as the Copyright Directive from 2019 was negotiated before ChatGPT. Even with the text and data mining exception and opt-out, AI companies aren’t interested in negotiating licences with CMOs, who have tried to get the AI companies to agree to meet and discuss the issue, but they don’t respond. Moreover, all the money that the tech companies are spending on litigation could be spent on licencing instead.
The third version of the General-Purpose AI Code of Practice does not help, nor does the Transparency Template as presented in January. The Code is vaguely worded, only asking providers to make “reasonable efforts” to ensure compliance with EU copyright law, and the Template requiring a sufficiently detailed summary of the training data does not say if authors’ works have been used. The SAA and others therefore suggest that the copyright section should be temporarily removed from the final version of the Code to allow additional time for a deeper and more inclusive dialogue.
The SAA therefore asked the Commissioner to support authors by fostering a dialogue between rightholders and AI companies, pointing out that it is difficult for authors to understand why a few big tech companies are being heard more by the EU than they are.
At the end of the meeting, the SAA delegation thanked the Commissioner for his commitment to improving artists’ working conditions, developing a strategic policy approach to culture and an AI strategy for the cultural and creative sectors. The Commissioner committed to raise his concerns on AI internally and invited the SAA to contribute to the Commission's consultation on a Culture Compass, which will serve as a strategic framework for EU cultural policy.