Secretary General's February Digest, 2025

February saw the start of my travels with the Berlinale, and AI remained high on our agenda. My team and I have spent a lot of time responding to consultations and writing joint statements. In the face of the big tech industry, our individual advocacy efforts may seem too small to make a difference, but I firmly believe the saying that 'small streams make great rivers'. Together with authors and partner organisations, we will continue to reiterate our message for authorisation, remuneration and transparency of Generative AI.

🐻 Berlinale

As every year, I went to the Berlinale - the Berlin International Film Festival, and this year I experienced the snow in the streets of the city. I met with German and European professional associations, copyright experts, MEPs, and SAA board members. The SAA co-hosted two important meetings and I attended many other events, including:

Kindly hosted by our board member VG WORT at its Berlin office, the SAA Board of Directors met for the very last time before the SAA General Assembly and elections in April, laying the groundwork for our activities and direction for the coming years. A delegation of the SAA Board met with our colleagues from the Federation of European Screen Directors (FERA) and the Federation of Screenwriters in Europe (FSE) to discuss our collaboration and shared priorities. We had great discussions, joined by two of SAA Patrons: Katarzyna Klimkiewicz and Jochen Greve.

I chaired the general assembly meeting of Cineuropa as its President. The European cinema news website is backed by an association of representative professional organisations and individuals from the sector who bring a wealth of ideas and energy to the project. I am very proud to be one of them 🤩

The LUX Audience Award of the European Parliament organised a panel discussion on AI, ethics and democracy. MEP Emma Rafowicz (Vice-Chair of the Culture Committee) made a strong intervention on the importance of AI innovation not contradicting to safeguards and protection, that authors' rights should not be sacrificed in the name of competitiveness, and that AI should be for creators, by creators and for democracy. Pauline Durand Vialle (CEO of FERA) spoke about how tech companies are stealing authors’ works to train their generative AI models, and stressed that AI should preserve artistic integrity and democratic pluralism.

Among the other events I attended, the EU Commission presented a consumer survey commissioned for the European Media Industry Outlook to be unveiled in spring. They investigated the consumption of all media (films/series/documentaries, social media, music, news, sports, video games, etc.) by European consumers by age groups and unsurprisingly, social media is the first media on which all groups spend most time. For 18-30 age group, music and video games come second and third and for 30+, films/series/documentaries and news come second and third. On the other hand, 18-30 age group seems more open to films/series from other European countries (28%) compared to 31+ (33%). Let’s see what lessons the Commission will draw from this survey…

I was lucky to see two films at the Berlinale: Mickey 17 by Bong Joon-ho, and Ari by Leonor Seraille. Two very different films but interesting for showing two highly sensitive young male characters. It was quite refreshing when the news is full of masculinism!

✍🏽 AI Charter, statements and contributions

Although we were not present at the high-level AI Summit in Paris, we joined the larger cultural and creative sectors to propose an International Charter for Culture and Innovation, calling on world leaders to be accountable - AI can only be trusted and fair if it respects the international copyright framework.

From our office in Brussels, my colleague Luisiana worked on some important contributions that we submitted in February. Firstly, SAA's responses to the Polish Presidency's questionnaire on the challenges for CMOs posed by technological developments, in particular AI. To learn more,read Luisiana's blog post on the EU Presidency's work to engage Member States in discussions on AI and copyright, beyond the AI Act. Secondly, she prepared the SAA's contribution to the UK consultation on copyright and AI, to argue against the UK's apparent intention to introduce a text-and-data mining exception covering AI, and to advocate for collective licensing. 

In anticipation of the third and final draft of the EU General-Purpose AI Code of Practice, we joined with other organisations representing authors and performers to write to Executive Vice-President Virkkunen and Commissioner Micallef. Together, we urged the EU Commission to rectify the backsliding on transparency and respect for copyright in the second draft of the AI Code of Practice. The final draft was due to be published at the end of February, but it has now been delayed. 

I am not surprised that it has been delayed. I would not want to be in the EU Commission's shoes, because the task at hand will not satisfy everyone. The cultural and creative sector's rights-based approach to the Code of Practice is seen as too burdensome by industry. AI companies, especially those from outside the EU, have already found the AI Act to be a cumbersome piece of regulation. I am afraid that US pressure on European regulation will not help the Commission to find the right balance for its cultural and creative sectors in this exercise.

March ✈️ Athens 🚅 Strasbourg

In March, I will be travelling again. I am looking forward to going to Athens for the International Conference on the 30th Anniversary of the Hellenic Copyright Organisation, where I will be one of the speakers at a round table on 'copyright and collective management in the age of AI'. I will also spend a few of days in Strasbourg for the meeting of the Advisory Committee of the European Audiovisual Observatory. 

We will also meet with our members in the constellation of our online working groups, one on retransmission rights and one on copyright. Finally, we will be preparing to welcome our members to the SAA General Assembly meeting in the first week of April.

Best regards,

Cécile

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