Almega – Employers’ Association of the Swedish Service sector

Feedback to the European Commission regarding the Report on the review of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive/ Targeted initiative for a better copyright environment for European creativity and innovation.

Almega welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on the review of the CDSM Directive and copyright-related provisions of the AI Act provided by the European Commission (hereafter Commission).

Generative artificial intelligence in particular holds significant opportunities to enhance productivity, foster new services and facilitate economic growth. Releasing these benefits require a regulatory framework that is clear, predictable, proportional, technology neutral and supportive of innovation.

The rapid development of AI urgently raises important questions concerning the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights. Copyright and related rights constitute a cornerstone of Europe’s knowledge-based economy and are closely linked to fundamental principles of ownership underpinning market-based economies. Ensuring that these rights are effectively upheld is essential not only for protecting creators, but also for ensuring continued investment in high-quality intellectual outputs as well as innovation, productivity and long-term growth.

Ensuring appropriate remuneration for creators.
Almega’s member companies operate in in IT, tech, media, architecture, engineering, and other knowledge-based work. For many of those, the core business is to generate intellectual services, where the results of the work are typically protected by copyright.

Companies that sell intellectual services where the work output is copyrighted are faced with the risk of not being paid and losing income streams. This is already an issue today but could in the future, if property rights are not respected, become an existential threat to the whole sector. Those who train AI on purchased assignment results should pay the creator for the use of the results in the AI training as well as the output generated when used by its clients. AI training could otherwise lead to superseding the work of the knowledge-based workers. It is therefore imperative to ensure appropriate remuneration for creators of the intellectual property.

Almega concurs with the aim of facilitating the use of copyright-protected content in the digital environment, improved licensing practices, and fostering a marketplace that respects copyrights.

One key issue going forward is that creators are given a reasonable compensation in connection with the commercialization and AI training of their IP (intellectual property). The AI development requires a review of the provisions on data mining and compensation to authors within articles 3, 4 and 18 within the CDSM Directive as compensation provisions in the AI Act. Article 18 states fair remuneration in exploitation contracts of authors and performers and their appropriate and proportionate remuneration.

Looking ahead, there is a clear risk that demand for creators’ work continues to diminish. If this continues unabated, a whole sector of companies with IP at their core risk going bankrupt. The provisions on guaranteed fair compensation to authors must be reviewed in connection with the increased use and commercialization of AI training of assignment results.

The risk management systems set out in the AI Act need to be urgently reviewed in relation to service areas where the role of authors needs to be strengthened and reaffirmed in connection with AI training of copyrighted results. One way forward could be to introduce a provision similar to Article 18 within the CDSM Directive to the AI Act in order to strengthen appropriate and proportionate remuneration for the right holders.

Almega urges the Commission to host stakeholder dialogues and promote the pre-negotiation of standard agreements and business models that address the issues.

Almega is positive about the rapid development of generative AI to increase creativity and efficiency in companies in the creative industry. However, the conditions for creators and the right to appropriate and proportionate compensation must be maintained. Almega believes that gaps must be identified and filled.

About Almega
Almega is the largest employers’ organization for the private service sector in Sweden. We represent more than 10,000 companies covering about 60 service industries, employing more than 500,000 individuals. The Swedish private service sector is a key driver of job creation and economic growth— constituting more than half of Sweden’s GDP , employing 2.5 million individuals and accounts for almost 40 percent of national exports. Four out of five new jobs is created in the private service sector, underscoring its critical role in competitiveness and innovation.