Appeal from the European Cultural and Creative Sectors on the occasion of World Intellectual Property Day
Open letter to EU-Commissioner Virkkunen makes specific requests for the protection of Europe’s works and values / Petition against exploitation by AI / Transparency, remuneration and enforcement should become central focus for European Commission
Erstellt am 25.04.2025
Creators for Europe United are asking Henna Virkkunen, Commission Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy for stronger protection of European values and creative works.
The signatories call for an equitable framework in line with intellectual property for the deployment of AI in the spirit of fostering – not thwarting – innovation. They declare that Europe’s creative soul must not become an expendable resource. The European Commission must develop regulatory guardrails to prevent millions of creative works from being used i.a. to train artificial intelligence without permission from or fair remuneration for creators, performers and rightsholders as a matter of urgency.
They point out that artificial intelligence needs creative works to be able to function at all. But in the present situation, it is the developers of the models who profit, whilst creators and rightsholders have de facto been expropriated. The open letter of the Creators for Europe United initiative to Virkkunen goes on to state: “AI can be a driver of progress – but only if it is built on solid legal and ethical foundations. If Europe loses its creatives, it will not only lose its cultural identity but also one of its strongest economic sectors. To sacrifice this potential means to jeopardise Europe’s future.”
The demands of the European Cultural and Creative Sectors
In their letter to the Commission Executive Vice-President, the creative sectors list specific measures necessary to stop the continuing abuse of their works:
- Complete transparency concerning all works, protected content, and performances used to train generative AI models and for other purposes in the past and in future.
- Fair remuneration for the use of their content.
- Effective enforcement of existing copyright law – including against global Tech companies.
- Inclusion of the cultural and creative sectors in all regulatory processes of AI governance.
The open letter by Creators for Europe United is available for signatures here.
About Creators for Europe United
Creators for Europe United advocates for the views of the creative sectors to be considered in policy-making. The initiative unites stakeholders from literature, music, film, design, news media, architecture, and other creative and cultural sectors.