One of the priorities of the Government of Spain in Brussels is the regulation of Artificial Intelligence to adapt it to current challenges. This time, the Executive is focusing on the cultural sector and will ask the Twenty-Seven, during a meeting scheduled for next week, to pay special attention to the protection of Intellectual Property in the context of the development of generative AI.
According to a text to which Demócrata has had access, the Spanish delegation will introduce during the meeting of the Ministers of Culture, which will be held next Tuesday in the Community capital, a specific point in which it will demand a review of Community legislation relating to copyright. “We consider it appropriate to draw attention to the need to undertake an exhaustive evaluation of the EU legislative framework on copyright, taking into account its complexity,” states the document, which also has the signature of Portugal, Slovenia, Estonia, Germany, Slovakia and Greece.
In this way, the head of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, will call for a study on the impact of Artificial Intelligence on the cultural and creative sectors, with the aim of opening a debate among the Twenty-Seven on the measures that “should be considered and carried out at our Union’s level”. The Executive considers that this is the right time to address this issue, before the European Commission presents the future AI Strategy applied to the cultural and creative sectors next year.
Review of the European framework
The document refers to a previous resolution by the European Parliament in which it was warned that current legislation is insufficient to face the challenge of licensing copyrighted material for the training of generative AI systems. At that time, MEPs called for an additional framework to clarify the licensing rules for generative tools, as well as mechanisms to address possible infringements arising from current copyright regulations.
The countries driving this initiative consider that this future regulatory framework, as the European Parliament has already pointed out, must include provisions aimed at ensuring effective cooperation between generative AI providers, creators, and other rights holders. Among the proposed measures is the establishment of a functional licensing market "that restores the bargaining power of rights holders and offers viable protection solutions".
In this context, the risk detected by the Government would not be limited solely to a gradual disappearance of the human dimension of cultural creation in favor of content generated by algorithms, but also to the economic viability itself of the European creative sector. The document argues that the expansion of these technologies can lead to an “existential risk” for society and for community democracy, insofar as it “blurs the lines between truth and falsehood, alters the perception of discourses and their authors and modifies cognitive faculties”.
Likewise, the Spanish delegation maintains that there is already evidence that certain AI tools have widely infringed copyright rules. Among the practices pointed out are the unauthorized collection of works available on the internet to train generative models and the breach of rights reserved for text and data mining.
The debate on AI and culture
The initiative driven by Spain is part of an increasingly broad debate within European institutions about the relationship between technological innovation and the protection of cultural rights. In Brussels, there is concern about the impact that generative AI may have on professions linked to artistic creation, journalism, the audiovisual industry, or music.
In recent months, various creator associations and management entities have warned that many AI tools have been trained using protected works without express authorization from their authors. The concern is particularly focused on the absence of transparent mechanisms that allow knowing which content has been used to feed the models and under what legal conditions.
The Spanish Government considers that the future European strategy must balance technological development with the effective protection of creators' fundamental rights. The position defended by the Executive involves avoiding a scenario in which innovation becomes detached from basic principles such as fair remuneration, content traceability, and the safeguarding of intellectual authorship.
In Moncloa they believe that the European Union must move towards a regulatory model that not only supervises the use of AI, but also guarantees effective economic compensation mechanisms for rights holders affected by the training and use of generative systems. In this regard, the European debate could lead to new transparency obligations for technology companies and the reinforcement of licensing systems.
Changes in the Artist Statute
In parallel to the European debate, Urtasun already advanced in the Senate that, at the national level, the provision of the Artist Statute that opens the door to the employment of generative Artificial Intelligence in certain phases of cultural activity will be approved in the coming weeks.
According to the Minister of Culture, the measures that "will see the light of day soon" are integrated into the reform of the Royal Decree that regulates the labor relations of artists, technical and auxiliary personnel in the performing, audiovisual, and musical arts. The text returned to public exposition in January after introducing modifications in several articles related to AI, with the aim of ordering the activity of minors on social networks, limiting the use of generative Artificial Intelligence, and mandatorily incorporating the figure of the intimacy coordinator in certain productions.
Regarding AI, the Executive detailed that its use will be authorized provided that it is included in the contract of the work to be produced —whether it be a film, a musical project or other cultural formats— and that, furthermore, its purpose is not to replace the work performed by the artist.
With this reform, the Government intends to establish a more precise legal framework for the use of emerging technologies in the cultural sphere, avoiding regulatory gaps and reinforcing the labor and economic protection of professionals in the sector. The Executive's intention is to align Spanish regulations with the debates that are already taking place in Brussels and to anticipate the challenges posed by the accelerated expansion of Artificial Intelligence in the creative industries.