At the heart of the discussion were issues related to GenAI, buy-outs in the VoD market and transparency and fair remuneration in music streaming services.
AUTODIA was represented by composer Yiannis Glezos, BoD Chairman, composer and producer Phoebus Tassopoulos, Board member, and composer and producer Vangelis Fampas, Secretary of the Supervisory Board. Also present were CEO Margarita Panagiotopoulou and Head of Communication & International Relations Iliana Antoniou.
The Society's delegation held a series of meetings with Greek MEPs, including members of the CULT Committee, on the sidelines of the event, with whom it discussed all the critical issues that concern Greek composers, songwriters and music publishers.
The aim of this visit was to network with policy makers, executives of European CMOs and creators, as well as to provide thorough information, with a view to consulting and taking reliable decisions to defend the interests of Greek creators at the European level. The event was co-organized by GESAC and MEPs Laurence Farreng, Marcos Ros Sempere and Bogdan Zdrojewski. Creators and policy makers exchanged views on the new challenges of new technology, which affect the livelihoods of composers, authors, directors, screenwriters, visual artists and many other creators.
Furthermore, ways and initiatives were discussed to rebuild a mutually beneficial future for innovation and creation in Europe, in order to support cultural and creative industries - one of Europe's most competitive sectors globally, employing 12.9 million people and contributing €934 billion in value added annually, representing 6.9% of EU GDP. Authors and their collective management organisations (CMOs) call for a meaningful implementation of the AI Act to ensure generative AI companies' transparency and adherence to EU legislation. This would entail AI companies that use copyright protected works obtaining licences from CMOs.
MEPs recalled the several initiatives taken and efforts given by the EP as regards creators' challenges vis-à-vis global major AI and streaming platforms and expressed their expectations of dedicated EU-wide solutions from the European Commission.