AEPO-ARTIS

AEPO-ARTIS submits response to European Commission’s Call for Evidence

AEPO-ARTIS — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 08:32:50 +0000

Following the European Commission’s Call for Evidence: Report on the review of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive / Targeted initiative for a better copyright environment for European creativity and innovation, AEPO-ARTIS has submitted its response.

You can read our full submission below and on this link.

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AEPO-ARTIS welcomes the Joint Declaration on Culture and calls for strong implementation of its commitments

AEPO-ARTIS — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 10:45:40 +0000

AEPO-ARTIS warmly welcomes the signature of the Joint Declaration on Culture, “Europe for Culture – Culture for Europe”, by the Presidents of the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Council of the European Union.

Europe’s cultural and creative sectors are among its greatest assets. The declaration echoes the views of AEPO-ARTIS that artists and cultural professionals are “at the heart of our cultural and creative sectors and industries” and that “fair remuneration and adequate working conditions are fundamental to artistic freedom and cultural diversity”.

Performers play a central role in this ecosystem, ensuring that cultural works reach audiences and remain culturally and linguistically diverse across Europe. Their contribution is essential to sustaining cultural diversity and strengthening public engagement with culture. Achieving these objectives requires robust policy initiatives, effective enforcement of rights and sustained public support.

When addressing AI we are pleased to see adjectives such as “ethical, sustainable and responsible” as well as “fair human-centric and rights-based approach”, but perhaps the most welcome part of the declaration is the commitment to “protecting intellectual property rights, by addressing the impacts of AI on creators and their fair remuneration while embracing innovation.”

We are at a moment where there is great uncertainty over whether creators will share in the revenue that producers and GenAI model and service providers will derive from the exploitation of the talents of performers and other creators. This part of the declaration sends a clear political signal that future policy and legislation must remain centred on human creativity and that technological innovation cannot come at the expense of performers and other creative professionals.

As the European Commission reviews the CDSM Directive and develops future initiatives concerning AI and copyright, the declaration is a reminder that work still needs to be done to achieve the goals it contains. AEPO-ARTIS calls for effective protection for performers and other creators in the digital environment and ensure that the value generated by the use of creative works and performances is fairly shared with those who create them.

AEPO-ARTIS looks forward to working with the European institutions and Member States to ensure that these words are turned into actions.

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AEPO-ARTIS elects new President

AEPO-ARTIS — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 14:29:37 +0000

Today, 9 June, the newly constituted Administrative Council of AEPO-ARTIS held its first meeting. One of its first responsibilities was the election of a new President and two Vice-Presidents.

The members of the Administrative Council unanimously elected Christophe Van Vaerenbergh, Managing Director of AEPO-ARTIS’ Belgian member organisation PlayRight, as President of AEPO-ARTIS, and Patricia Riera-Barsallo and Pál Tomori have been re-elected as Vice-Presidents.

A member of the AEPO-ARTIS Administrative Council since June 2023, Christophe has distinguished himself through his strong commitment, efficiency, and valuable contributions to the organisation’s work.

As Managing Director of PlayRight, the Belgian collective management organisation for performers, both actors and musicians, for more than 15 years, he brings extensive expertise in intellectual property, media, and telecommunications law. Before joining PlayRight, Christophe worked for several Belgian ministers on policy issues ranging from intellectual property and privacy to public IT policy. He also served as the head of the Belgian Standards Bureau and is a qualified lawyer with specialised training in IT and telecommunications law from KU Leuven and the University of Namur.

Upon his election, Christophe thanked the Administrative Council for the expressed trust and former President, Dr. Tilo Gerlach, for his 20-year old service and stated:

“The challenges facing performers today go far beyond collective management. From the impact of AI on the creative sector to strengthening copyright protections and advancing international recognition of performers’ rights, there is important work ahead.

I remain fully committed to ensuring that the voices of artists are heard at every level of decision-making. Together with our members, partners, and stakeholders, we will continue to advocate for a stronger, more transparent, and more effective framework that protects performers and supports their future in an evolving creative landscape.”

The Administrative Council also expressed its sincere gratitude to Tilo Gerlach for his long and dedicated service as President. Following his earlier decision not to stand for another term, Tilo concluded his presidency after many years of leadership and commitment to the organisation and will continue to serve as a member of the Board.

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Music sector welcomes European Parliament’s AgoraEU draft report

AEPO-ARTIS — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 10:09:10 +0000

Together with 25 organisations from across the European music sector, we welcome the draft report by MEP Rafowicz and MEP Kuhnke, and its recognition of music as a dedicated strand within AgoraEU.

Read the full statement below:

1 Music contributes significantly to Europe’s economy: Across EU 27 and UK it contributes €81.9 billion in gross value added to the GDP, provides direct employment for more than 1.3 million people across the EU (15% of total jobs in the cultural and creative sectors) and generates €9.7 billion in export revenue. [Source]

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AEPO-ARTIS discusses Music and AI at the European Parliament

AEPO-ARTIS — Tue, 12 May 2026 10:33:28 +0000

On 6 May, AEPO-ARTIS – together with Finnish MEP Maria Guzenina – organised a discussion on Copyright and AI between MEPs and performers. In a short timeframe—during which we tested the maximum capacity of the room—we provided a forum for multiple MEPs, musicians, and government representatives.

Under the title “Generative AI vs Music: Safeguarding Human Creativity and the Respect of Intellectual Property” we provided musicians a first opportunity to speak at the heart of European democracy as performers.

Croatian pop-artist Mia Dimsic started the debate with the statement that she did not feel threatened by AI, but certainly uncomfortable, while making clear how AI bypasses the actual creation process. “If we would no longer make music because we like the slowness of the process of it, then why are we here?” She was supported in this by the Belgian musician Pascal Oorts, who noted that AI not only competes with human music through its output, but is also increasingly taking a place in the actual production process. In doing so, it erodes trust in the collaborative process that we know and introduces rivalry into the actual creation process.

Our own Nick Yule participated in the debate and put focus on the fact that musicians have actually never signed up for this. While record companies have already begun licensing performers’ recordings, the need for prior authorisation is not something they have paid any attention to. Anne Vuopala, Senior Advisor to the Finnish Ministry of Culture and coordinator of the EU Copyright Infrastructure Task Force, joined with him in this and delved deeper into the need for a proper infrastructure to enable artists to effectively enforce the rights they acquire by law. “We need better tools to identify the human creator and ensure they are kept in the value chain”.

There was a consensus among the panellists that the current framework of the AI Act and codes of practice offer insufficient guarantees to ensure the principles of authorisation, transparency, and remuneration. There was also an acknowledgment that the use that is already widespread has a particularly significant impact on the bargaining position of musicians. In the current context, only major labels appear to have sufficient clout to initiate negotiations with AI providers. However, giving these companies the power to determine the terms for an entire sector carries the risk of a repeat of the streaming debacle.

In a round of reflections, MEP Hannes Heide (Austria) kicked off with the statement that “Being against AI theft is not the same as being against innovation” and that we should certainly expect a bit more from big tech. “Transparency is not a competence that AI providers lack.” While Hannes called on musicians to occupy Place Luxembourg with tour buses, just as farmers do with tractors, MEP Gordan Božanac (Croatia) went a step further. He referred to the enormous role assigned to AI in strengthening the defence sector and called for it to be used to defend our artists against piracy, which is also amplified by AI.

MEP Biljana Borzan (Croatia) took a slightly more moderate position by pointing out the inevitability that some jobs would indeed be lost and that we could not make everyone happy. In his concluding remarks, our former General Secretary Ioan Kaes alluded to this by stating that while we indeed cannot make everyone happy, for once we do want a situation where it is the artist who is ultimately happy. “AI is there to help us try not to make mistakes. Culture is there to help us accept that we do.”

The event ended on a poetic note, with Maria Guzenina and Nick Yule reciting some lyrics by the French metal band Gojira, with the line “Seems all have gone insane for gold” being particularly relevant for some involved in the development of GenAI.

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AEPO-ARTIS wraps up successful conference on 7 years of the CDSM Directive

AEPO-ARTIS — Mon, 11 May 2026 10:47:06 +0000

On 5 May, AEPO-ARTIS organised its 2026 Annual Conference focussing entirely on the assessment of the 2019 CDSM Directive.

In his opening speech, AEPO-ARTIS president Tilo Gerlach already indicated that we are seeing increasingly more characteristics of a changing climate within the European institutions. This was immediately confirmed by the words of EVP Henna Virkkunen, who stated that “Performers are at the heart of the cultural sector.” While referring to the fact that performers bring value to the cultural sector, she emphasised that remuneration is key for performers and that the upcoming assessment will investigate “How the principles in the Directive have affected their negotiation position’.

Commissioner Glenn Micallef confirmed the contribution that performers give to our cultural values and that the assessment of the Directive needs to identify the impact on fair remuneration, hereby referring explicitly to streaming. Regarding AI, he noted that the Commission is considering the need for new measures and that “the benefits of AI need to be felt by the Cultural Creative Sectors.”

In his speech MEP Hannes Heide made it clear: “We are no longer discussing ambitions. We are discussing impact.” The EP will not be satisfied with principles on paper. They want rights in practice and will call upon the Commission for action.

After these encouraging words, AEPO-ARTIS Head of Legal Nick Yule was tasked with confronting the audience with the fact that in practice, there is still very little sign of improvement in the situation of actors. A brief presentation of our most recent report “Acting Fairly?”, based on input from more than 2,300 professional actors – demonstrates in black and white that we are still far from being able to speak of having acquired effective rights in practice.

The recommendations of this report, i.e. the search for solutions that fall outside the contractual relationship, such as non-transferable compensation rights, were the topic of discussion at the first panel of the day. Moderated by French actress Nathalie Boyer, representatives from CMOs from Italy (Isabella Longo), Poland (Sylwia Biadun) and Slovenia (Uroš Rožič), discussed the positive impact of the new legislations they have been able to work with in their countries since the implementation of the Directive. Each of these new sets of laws provides for non-transferable remuneration rights for both performers and authors, whereby the collective management organisation is responsible for collecting directly from the end users.

In the second panel, the floor was then given to the institutions themselves. Head of the Copyright Unit Emmanuelle Du Chalard, MEP Maria Guzenina, and Nóirín Ní Earcáin, responsible for copyright under the upcoming Irish Presidency, provided their views on the assessment, in which each of the institutions plays an important role.

While Emmanuelle pointed out that the objective is to gather evidence from certain sectors, Nóirín admitted that so far it has been difficult to have data on the impact of the Directive, thereby praising the work AEPO-ARTIS has done with the Acting Fairly? report. Maria, in turn, referred to the work that the Parliament has already carried out by keeping a close eye on the Directive and increasing pressure on the Commission to prioritise the needs of artists when evaluating its impact.

It was confirmed that the Commission expects the first version of the assessment study to be finalised by the summer and that the actual Commission report can be expected by the end of the year, or quite soon. Emmanuelle indicated however, “We have all the tools in the Directive, so if we notice that they are not working, we need to have the discussion on why that is”, thereby slightly tempering expectations that the Commission will take a strong position on additional measures. Mention was also made of the fact that the TDM exception is also part of the review and that additional measures could indeed be introduced.

The third panel turned to the impact of the CDSM Directive on musicians and brought together Kristina Delfin Kanceljak (HUZIP), musician Michael Schack and Ibán García Del Blanco, moderated by AEPO-ARTIS Head of Legal Nick Yule. The discussion reflected on developments in the music sector since the adoption of the Directive and revisited themes previously highlighted in the European Parliament resolution on Cultural diversity and the conditions for authors in the European music streaming market. Participants considered areas where progress has been made, but also where longstanding concerns remain, particularly regarding remuneration and whether the expected improvements for creators and performers have materialised in practice.

In a final panel, focus was put on the impact of the Directive on new technologies, and in particular AI. With Kristina Janušauskaitė (IFPI), Tayyiba Nasser (BECS), Juliette Prissard (EUROCINEMA) and Pal Tomori (EJI) producers and performers from both the music and audiovisual sector were well represented.

The debate delved into the AI timeline and the fact that in 2019, no one within the CCS paid attention to the TDM exception. Nevertheless, in the meantime all on the panel see the impact of generative AI on the business of their members.

While all stakeholders support the need for reinstalling the principles of authorisation, transparency and remuneration, the road towards these common goals seems saturated with intersections and forks. This applies both to whether more trust should be placed in the judiciary or new legislation, and who should fulfil which role.

Nevertheless, everyone agreed on the Voss report and the notion of voluntary licensing. There is no need for a system in which the government forces rightholders to license their content and determines the price of their works. Rightholders must retain the freedom to enter into negotiations with users, including in the AI industry, individually or collectively.

That small consensus brought an end to a long day of intense discussions and, above all, the opportunity for our members to engage in direct debate with European policymakers, on stage and during the coffee breaks. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to everyone who attended our conference (as a speaker or participant) for their support of this particularly important event for your organisation.

Watch the conference video here:

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AEPO-ARTIS “Acting Fairly?” report finds EU copyright rules still do not deliver fair remuneration for actors

AEPO-ARTIS — Tue, 05 May 2026 07:04:30 +0000

Brussels, 5 May 2026

AEPO-ARTIS announces the publication of “Acting Fairly?”, a new report assessing the impact of Chapter 3 of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market (CDSM) Directive on the fair remuneration of actors. The report is based on a survey completed by 2,382 professional actors across 11 EU Member States, making it the most extensive analysis of contractual practices affecting actors since the entry into force of the CDSM Directive.

When the CDSM Directive was adopted in 2019, it recognised that performers are often in a weaker contractual position when they transfer or license their rights. It therefore introduced a specific chapter on fair remuneration, including the principle that performers are entitled to “appropriate and proportionate remuneration”, as well as additional rights to transparency, contract adjustment, alternative dispute resolution and rights revocation.

Seven years later, the findings of “Acting Fairly?” show that – for actors – these provisions have not achieved their objective.

The report finds that lump sum contracts providing “buy-outs”, remain the dominant practice in the audiovisual sector. Only 19% of actors have ever worked under a contract entitling them to receive royalties or residuals directly from a producer, broadcaster or streaming platform. This means that the vast majority of actors receive no further payment when the productions in which they perform are successfully shown on TV or on streaming platforms.

The CDSM Directive states that “A lump sum payment can also constitute proportionate remuneration, but it should not be the rule.” According to the survey, 81% of actors consider that the lump sum they receive does not fairly remunerate them for their contribution to a production, while 93% state that receiving a lump sum is not a fair way of sharing streaming revenue in particular.

The Directive is not equipped to address this endemic issue. As one actor said:

“It is general practice that actors are made to sign a buy-out agreement even before the casting. If the actor does not accept the offered amount… they are not even invited to the casting.”

The report also identifies the continuing threat of blacklisting as both an insurmountable problem as well as an explanation why the rights introduced by Articles 19 to 22 of the Directive will never work in practice. A vast number of actors chose to comment on blacklisting with examples such as:

“In all cases, at the moment of hiring we are practically coerced into accepting the conditions imposed by the producer, under penalty of, if we do not accept, losing the work.”

This fear affects the practical use of all the contractual rights introduced by the Directive. On transparency, only 12% of actors working under contracts providing recurring remuneration received the information producers are required to provide at least once a year. One actor commented: “The last time I mentioned, in a project, to the production company, that I wanted more information about streaming revenues, or that I wanted an agreement if the series were sold to streaming, I was looked at badly in the production.”

The possibility to request the adjustment of an existing contract in order to obtain an additional remuneration has also had very limited impact. Only 6% of actors working under contracts providing recurring remuneration had attempted to use the contract adjustment mechanism. One actor stated:

“Disney reassigned me twice as a disciplinary measure after I sought additional remuneration.”

In order to lower the barrier for actors to act in the event of a contractual dispute, Article 21 o fthe directive made the system of alternative dispute resolution procedures mandatory in every Member State. However, only 11% of actors who had ever been involved in a dispute with their producer, broadcaster or streaming platform had used ADR. As one actor explained:

“Triggering any type of litigation or extra collection as suggested here always results in not being hired in the future. The actor who does it will no longer be called either by the studio/producer or by the client.”

The report finds that while the Directive was well intentioned, its contractual tools are of little practical value for actors in an industry where lump sum contracts remain the rule, and blacklisting threatens future employment opportunities.

Based on these findings, AEPO-ARTIS calls on Member States to focus on the effective implementation of Article 18. In particular, AEPO-ARTIS recommends that actors be granted an unwaivable right to equitable remuneration for on-demand streaming, subject to compulsory collective management and paid by the end-user. Such a mechanism would operate outside the individual contract, would not require the actor to initiate action against a producer and could not be waived or removed by contract.

As the review of the CDSM Directive is ongoing, it is hoped that the European Commission will listen to the voices of the 2,382 actors that contributed in the making of this report and recommend that Member States amend their legislation in this manner to ensure that goal of the Directive – fair remuneration – becomes a reality for all actors.

Ioan Kaes, General Secretary of AEPO-ARTIS, said:

“Actors are at the heart of Europe’s audiovisual culture, but the current contractual framework does not ensure that they share fairly in the value generated by their performances. The CDSM Directive recognised the problem, but this report shows that its contractual provisions have not worked for actors in practice and never will. A right that depends on an individual actor challenging a producer is worthless where the consequence may be the loss of future work. Actors need an unwaivable remuneration right that operates collectively and outside the individual contract.”

The full report is available on this link.

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Performers on the agenda of the EU Japan IPA

AEPO-ARTIS — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 06:43:12 +0000

On April 27 and 28, AEPO-ARTIS participated in Tokyo in a conference on AI and IP, organised within the framework of the EU-Japan IP Action project.

The IPA project focusses on enhancing cooperation between Japan and the EU in the field of Intellectual Property, particularly in the digital space. Instigated by the EUIPO, the initiative aims to align IP policies and practices between the EU and Japan. The IPA started officially in October 2025 and will run for 48 months. The conference organised in Tokyo was a first step in bringing the focus of the IPA to the relationship between intellectual property and AI.

The conference took a particularly broad approach and touched upon the use of AI in trademark protection, ongoing lawsuits in both the EU and Japan, as well as the discussions known to us regarding the impact of generative AI on the creative sectors and the manner in which both regions are responding to this. A particularly interesting angle here, for example, was the possibility for performers in Japan to register their voice and likeness as a trademark in an attempt to combat unauthorised digital replicas.

The EU framework, consisting of the CDSM Directive, the AI Act and its implementation package of Code of Practice, Transparency Template and GPAI Guidelines, was presented as providing a proper basis for a balanced practice. In a panel focussing on the audiovisual sector, AEPO-ARTIS was able us to point out that the current EU framework, is far from satisfactory for our actors and that additional measures are needed to guarantee that performers’ rights are respected and that they can obtain remuneration when their work is used for AI purposes.

In a separate panel on the music industry, we confronted representatives of IFPI and the French producers’ CMO SCPP, with the need to develop new remuneration schemes that would avoid repeating the unfair practices existing in the streaming industry. Rather than working together on a search for better and more transparent systems, SCPP went on the offensive by stating that the streaming model was exemplary because performers are by far receiving the largest part of income generated by this mode of exploitation. This gave rise to a very lively discussion in which we were able to demonstrate how the most recent IFPI annual report – on which the panellists based their arguments – misrepresents the figures regarding payments to performers.

As a general conclusion, we can state that the conference has given the Japanese government a clear picture that, regarding AI, there are no lessons to be learned from the European adventure.

In addition to the conference we participated in a workshop on Public Performance Rights. This workshop was organised at the request of the Japanese Copyright Office (JPO) that has drafted a proposal to introduce the right for performers and producers to collect for the public performance of phonograms, a proposal which is currently being submitted to the Diet (Japanese Parliament).

The proposal is the result of pressure from the EU within the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) signed in 2019, which includes specific commitments in the field of intellectual property. The workshop focussed on providing the Japanese Copyright Office with a clear view on the practice of the collection of remuneration for the public performance of music by authors, producers and performers. AEPO-ARTIS was able to partially remove the persistent reluctance regarding the right of performers to receive remuneration for this type of exploitation, by highlighting the importance of the collection for our performers’ income and providing insight into the long history that preceded this irreversible practice.

We thank the EUIPO for including AEPO-ARTIS in the EU’s delegation to this important mission and hope that this will soon unlock new revenues for our European performers.

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Generative AI vs Music: Safeguarding Human Creativity and the Respect of Intellectual Property

AEPO-ARTIS — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 07:42:32 +0000

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7 Years On… Assessing the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive

AEPO-ARTIS — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 20:11:21 +0000

AEPO-ARTIS is pleased to invite you to a full-day conference titled “7 Years On… Assessing the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive”, taking place on Tuesday, 5 May 2026 in Brussels at the Thon Hotel EU.

Please see the programme below:

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