A German photo agency has been ordered to pay €35,000 in damages for commercially licensing photos taken inside Cologne Cathedral without proper permission—some of which depicted copyrighted artwork by Gerhard Richter. The court reinforced that image agencies are legally responsible for verifying rights, even when content is submitted by third parties.

The third draft of the GPAI Code of Practice undermines the objectives of the AI Act, contravenes EU law and ignores the intention of the EU legislator – we cannot support it.

European news publishers are deeply concerned about the third draft code of practice published last week by the European Commission. The draft includes a chapter about how AI providers must comply with EU copyright law which has unfortunately gone from bad to worse: it contains serious errors relating to the interpretation of AI and copyright law.

The European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) expresses serious concerns about the latest draft of the EU Code of Practice for General Purpose AI. The Alliance is warning that its vague language and reduced obligations weaken protections for rightsholders. For news agencies the proposed technical solutions for rights management are unsuitable.

Not fit for purpose: Writers, translators and journalists of the European text sector express strong opposition to the Third Draft of the EU’s Code of Practice under the AI Act’s implementation.

CEPIC attended the Unmasking AI – Making the EU AI Act Succeed event in Brussels, where industry leaders discussed the urgent need for transparency, accountability, and fair compensation in AI model training. Patrick Lacroix, CEO of Belga, highlighted the risks of unchecked AI scraping and emphasised that without stronger protections in the AI Act, rightsholders will continue to face legal uncertainty, loss of control, and unfair exploitation of their content.

DVP, the Society for Press Neighbouring Rights, has signed its first agreement with Microsoft under the EU directive granting neighbouring rights to publishers and press agencies. This landmark deal ensures compensation for rights holders whose content appeared on Bing between 2019 and 2024, marking a significant step toward sustainable remuneration for press content in the digital space.

As a key stakeholder in the creative industries, CEPIC is deeply concerned with the envisaged alteration of copyright law in the UK which we think is presently perfectly fit for purpose to incentivise licensing agreements between AI providers and rightsholders and to provide a sustainable environment to European innovation and SMEs. CEPIIC's submission provides insight into the challenges faced by the image sector, specifically in relation to the options put forward by the government as well as insights into the on-going process in the EU and experience with opt-out mechanisms for rightsholders.