05.05.2025 | Open Letter of the Creators for Europe United to the EU-Commission: For a fair, transparent and legally compliant development of AI
The bbk berlin supports the call of “Creators for Europe United” and asks all artists and their supporters to sign and share it. Only by using all of our creative work can AI generate meaningful content and be further developed with the works we create. We demand a system of fair participation and fair remuneration for all artists and the enforcement of existing copyright laws against tech companies:
"Open letter
to Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy
April 25, 2025
https://creators-for-europe-united.eu/
Dear Executive Vice-President Virkkunen,
protect Europe’s Creative Soul!
Europe is much more than a geographic area. It is a cultural promise – a promise of freedom, diversity, innovation and co-operation. This promise has inspired artists, creatives and visionaries for generations.
Today, however, this heritage is threatened – not only by political division, but by a technological development that degrades our creative work to a mere resource: generative artificial intelligence.
We, the voices of the European creative industries – authors, musicians, actors, filmmakers, photographers, illustrators, composers, designers, architects, journalists, translators, artists, producers, publishers and representatives of the media and cultural industries – are sounding the alarm.
Our rights as creators and rights holders are being systematically eroded under the guise of ‘promoting innovation’. Billions of creative works are being used as the basis for AI systems without our knowledge, without our consent and without remuneration. The EU Commission has done too little to protect us from this.
We therefore call for decisive and swift action:
- Full transparency about all works, contributions and performances that have been and will be used for training generative AI models and other purposes.
- Adequate remuneration for the use of our works.
- Consistent enforcement of applicable copyright laws – including against global tech companies.
- Involvement of the culture, creative and media industries in all regulatory processes for AI governance.
Artificial intelligence relies on our creative content to function at all. Without it, AI is blind, empty and speechless. At present, it is exclusively the developers of the models who benefit, while creators and rights holders are being expropriated.
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.
We strongly call on you:
Protect Europe’s creative soul, protect European values and works. Act now to ensure a fair, transparent and legally compliant development of artificial intelligence. Europe cannot stand idly by while its cultural foundations are devalued.
With emphasis and great concern, but also with hope for strong and fair regulation
Creators for Europe United
#openletterCFEunited