#performers-rights

#performers-rights

WIPO is not merely a distant UN bureaucracy; it is a dynamic, fee-driven organization that has been undergoing significant operational and cultural transformation in recent years.

"Collective bargaining has been the fastest and most effective way for the regulation of AI technology," SAG-AFTRA Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland stated, emphasizing the union's role in shaping AI usage in Hollywood.

"Under our precedents, a company is not liable as a copyright infringer for merely providing a service to the general public with knowledge that it will be used by some to infringe copyrights," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the court.

Our creative industries face a clear and present danger from uncredited and unremunerated use of copyrighted material to train AI models. Photographers, musicians, authors and publishers are seeing their work fed into AI models which then produce imitations that take employment and earning opportunities from the original creators.

Today, the concert ticketing industry is broken. It is controlled by Live Nation and the company it owns, Ticketmaster. According to DOJ estimates cited in court, Live Nation-Ticketmaster holds an 86% market share in primary ticketing for major concert venues and a significant share in the use of large amphitheaters by artists. The government argues this dominance wasn't built on superior service. It was constructed through what prosecutors describe as a "flywheel" - a self-reinforcing system where control over venues, ticketing technology, and artist promotion creates an ecosystem that competitors cannot meaningfully penetrate.

Following an internal review, and in light of concerns raised about your social media presence, we've decided not to proceed with publishing your work in this issue. As a trauma-informed and inclusive publication, the Aftershock Review has a duty of care to ensure our contributors and readers feel safe and respected. This decision reflects our commitment to those principles and is final.

those options range from "option 0", simply doing nothing and leaving UK copyright legislation in its currently uncertain state when it comes to the use of copyright materials to train AI models, through to options which would either require specific consent from rights holders in all cases ("option 1") or allow consent to be assumed by AI developers unless a rights holder objects, subject to developers being transparent about what materials have been used in training ("option 3").

Of the $43.9 billion that advertisers in the U.S. are expected to spend on creator marketing in 2026, most of that money - 55% - will go towards ads amplifying the creators' content, not to the actual creation and posting of content by the creators themselves. And that spend is only increasing as creator content becomes a more popular choice for ad creative and paid amplification provides brands with the analytics to be able to more effectively gauge the impact of creators' content.

When Thomas Jefferson wrote about the "inalienable" rights of man in the US Declaration of Independence 250 years ago, it's possible he lifted the term from the French. And long before it was ever used as an adjective to describe human rights, it defined royal property. To this day, "inalienability" remains a cornerstone of public collections in France-and many other countries-impacting museums and their ability to deaccession, including for purposes of restitution.

As of today, I am no longer represented by Wasserman, the talent agency led by Casey Wasserman,

As independent music reaches $160B in market value and commands nearly half of the global music industry, a critical disconnect persists: while indie creators now generate 47% of all recorded music revenue, catalog financing remains concentrated among the top 1% of artists. This gap forces emerging and mid-tier creators to choose between waiting years for streaming royalties that may never materialize at scale or signing away their rights through exploitative deals with hidden terms and recoupment structures.

"The suggestion that patents are anti-progress is a dangerous myth that continues to be perpetuated by those who are ill-informed or believe sharing inventions for free is a more expedient strategy than paying for a license." Sharing information about an invention is not an option. With patents, disclosure is a requirement which benefits the inventor, other inventors and society. When and how an invention is shared makes a huge difference.

The campaign argues that in the race for dominance in the new GenAI technology, some of the world's wealthiest tech companies, along with private equity-backed ventures, have engaged in a "massive rip-off" of creative content without authorization or compensation. According to the campaign, this practice "imperils U.S. jobs, economic growth and global 'soft power' supported by the U.S. creative industries." The campaign warns that this widespread infringement erodes the foundation of the U.S. entertainment industry and disincentivizes the creation of new works.