
In a united effort to safeguard creativity and fairness in the development of AI in the European Union, the European Publishers Council (EPC) and a broad coalition of cultural and creative industry leaders have addressed their serious concerns today to Executive Vice-President Virkkunen regarding the Second Draft of the General-purpose AI Code of Practice under the EU AI Act.
The EPC and its co-signatories—representing creators, publishers, producers, and rightsholders from across Europe—sent a letter to Executive Vice-President Virkkunen urging critical revisions to the draft Code of Practice. Despite constructive participation during consultations on the First Draft, the coalition highlighted that the Second Draft fails to reflect essential feedback from the creative sectors, particularly on transparency and respect for copyright. Instead of advancing the objectives of the AI Act, the current draft risks undermining them. In particular:
Erosion of Copyright Standards
The Second Draft weakens copyright protections by allowing AI providers to rely on "reasonable and proportionate efforts" to ensure lawful access to copyrighted content, rather than mandating strict compliance with EU copyright law. Such provisions create ambiguity and loopholes that could exempt AI providers from meaningful accountability.
Flawed Reliance on robots.txt
The draft mandates compliance with robots.txt—a protocol with significant functional limitations—as the preferred tool for rights reservations. This contradicts both EU copyright law and the flexibility enshrined in the AI Act, which does not restrict rightsholders to specific technologies.
Unequal Standards for SMEs
While we recognise it is important to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the draft implies that SMEs could enjoy derogations from copyright obligations. This would unfairly disadvantage larger players and encourage the development of AI models trained on illegal content.
Insufficient Transparency Requirements
The proposed template for the “sufficiently detailed summary” of content used to train AI models lacks the necessary detail for rightsholders to enforce their rights effectively. Without improvements, this could hinder efforts to ensure compliance with EU copyright law.
The coalition emphasises that the effective implementation of the AI Act requires a balanced approach that supports both AI innovation and the growth of Europe’s successful creative industries. By ensuring robust copyright protections and a fair licensing market, the EU can maintain its global leadership in fostering responsible AI development.
To achieve this, EPC and its partners call for the following:
Clear obligations as required under the law for AI providers to ensure lawful access to copyrighted content.
Flexibility in technologies for rights reservations, avoiding over-reliance on outdated and unfit for purpose tools like robots.txt.
Uniform legal standards for all players, regardless of company size.
Transparent and comprehensive summaries of training data, enabling rightsholders to protect their works.
As the EU AI Office prepares the next draft, the EPC remains committed to engaging in constructive dialogue. We stand firm in advocating for a framework that upholds the principles of the AI Act, respects EU copyright law, and protects the rights and livelihoods of European publishers.