EWC-Statement

on the occasion of the Stakeholder Roundtable on

“Copyright and AI: Navigating Challenges, Risks and Opportunities”

upon invitation of MEP Mario Furore and MEP Gaetano Pedullà (M5S, The Left Group)

 

As European Writers’ Council, we represent 52 writers’ organisations and 250,000 authors of the book sector from 34 countries including Italy. Our writers are the most exploited group of creators, with over 1,000 text-generating AI applications worldwide built from millions of books without our consent.

EWC welcomes the adoption

of the resolution “Copyright and GenAI – opportunities and challenges” as it recognises the EWC’ ART principle of Authorisation, Remuneration and Transparency.

Three points we emphasise:

1. AI Licensing shall be, like every other exclusive right, voluntarily for the author and not be administered in general via CMOs, but also individually. EWC’ surveys show that over 50% of writers do not want to license their works in general for AI. Those few (around 15%), who are ready, want control, transparency, time limits and substantial payment.
2. Accordingly, we strongly reject the expanding of Art. 4 of the CDSM Directive onto GenAI use, or a new ‘AI exemption’. We indeed demand a swift formal clarification of the scope of the text and data mining exception in the CDSM Directive.
3. We call for the EU Commission to set up guidelines for mandatory, multi-layered, human- and machine-readable labelling, which shall go further than the currently developed Code of Practice for Article 50 (AI Act) to ensure transparency and to avoid consumer scams and remuneration frauds.

We ask you whether and how you support authors in getting legal and financial solutions and make wealthy AI companies liable and pay for infringements and any future use – before it is too late for us. The harm done is already beyond any imagination.

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read more about: The EWC ART Principle