Seven organizations of creators and distributors of works have called on the new Minister of Culture Rachida Dati in favor of “European regulations which guarantee a future for copyright” in the face of artificial intelligence software. The letter was sent to Rachida Dati on Monday by the organizations of music (Adami, Sacem, Snep), literature (SGDL and SNE), audiovisual (Eurocinéma) and live performance (SACD).
“Faced with the upheavals that artificial intelligence will bring to all creative and cultural sectors and to the professions of creation, production, distribution and publishing that we represent, the adoption of a European regulation which guarantees a future for copyright and related rights is a vital necessity,” we read in this letter obtained by AFP. Generative AI software is trained to create itself by examining works. Some are in the public domain, but others are copyrighted without compensation.
The subject is under discussion within the European Union. The EU agreed in December, after tough negotiations, on unprecedented legislation at the global level to regulate AI, intended to promote innovation while limiting the possible abuses of this technology.
For the organizations which wrote to Rachida Dati, “in this European legislative process, (…) France has not spoken as strongly as it should have to defend protective regulation of copyright in the ‘digital space’. “We therefore expect from the French government, in the coming weeks, positions more in line with France’s traditional commitments in matters of intellectual property,” they add, asking to meet the new minister.
Since her arrival in government on January 12, Rachida Dati has not made her position known on this subject.