We are thrilled to share that Emily Shelley, our President here at CEPIC, has recently been appointed Chief Executive Officer at PA Media Group, making history as the first woman to lead the organisation in its 155-year history.

As we gear up for the highly anticipated 2024 CEPIC Congress, we couldn't be more excited to extend an invitation to join us for what promises to be an unforgettable event! With over 140 delegates already confirmed, this year's Congress is shaping up to be our most dynamic yet. We're thrilled to announce we already have a prestigious lineup of sponsors...

We are thrilled to announce IQPlug as our newest confirmed sponsor for the highly anticipated 2024 CEPIC Congress! With their cutting-edge AI solutions, IQPlug is poised to revolutionise the way businesses harness the power of artificial intelligence in their products and services.

The CEPIC webinar discussing the copyrightability of AI output was well-attended and featured thought-provoking arguments from both sides of the debate. CEPIC is therefore setting up an online interactive event to formally present the state of play when it comes to the copyrightability of AI around the world.

We welcome the approval of the EU AI Act by the European Parliament, and we thank Members of the European Parliament for the essential role they have played in supporting creators and rightsholders throughout the legislative process.

We are delighted to announce Mondadori Portfolio as the newest addition to our community of members here at CEPIC! Based in Italy, Mondadori Portfolio is not just a photographic agency but a cultural beacon, representing the essence of "Italian style" through storytelling and documentation.

We are thrilled to welcome PicRights as a valued sponsor for this year's CEPIC Congress! PicRights is a copyright compliance resolution company that is committed to upholding the integrity of creative works through quick and fair copyright enforcement. Their dedication to resolving copyright claims demonstrates a shared commitment to protecting the rights of creators and content owners in the digital space.

We are thrilled to welcome Wirestock aboard as one of our esteemed sponsors for this year's CEPIC Congress! As the leading content monetisation platform, Wirestock empowers photographers, video artists, and illustrators worldwide to license their work to marketplaces and companies at the forefront of generative AI models. Their extensive network spans the globe, ensuring that high-quality content with detailed metadata reaches the right audience, maintaining the highest standards of quality and authenticity.

CEPIC Member, Bridgeman Images, is the world's leading source of fine art, cultural, and historical media for reproduction, this week they have announced an exclusive partnership with Art Directors Club Italy (ADCI) to foster creativity and innovation. Together, they will work on various collaborative projects, including creative competitions and awards, aimed at celebrating and promoting emerging talent in the field of communication.

We are delighted to announce that Imago, the leading independent photo agency in Germany and the largest producer of sports content in Europe, has joined us as a Bronze Sponsor for this year's highly anticipated CEPIC Congress in Juan-les-Pins, France. Their unwavering support will enhance the experience for all attendees, as they generously sponsor the Congress delegates' bags and badges.

The European Union is on the verge of implementing groundbreaking legislation on artificial intelligence (AI) with the EU AI Act. This regulatory framework will set the stage for governing AI technologies across the EU. To help individuals and organisations understand the complexities of this impending law, we introduce the AI Act Explorer.

We're thrilled to welcome Sipa USA to the CEPIC family! As a leading international media agency specialising in entertainment, news, and sports content, Sipa USA brings a wealth of experience and expertise. With a roster of top media companies as clients, Sipa USA is dedicated to delivering high-quality content to audiences worldwide.

Envato, under the leadership of CEO Hichame Assi, has embedded diversity at its core. In 2023 they introduced 'Embrace Diversity' as a central theme and showed their commitment by adhering to Workplace Gender Equality Australia standards, using metrics like the Australian Workplace Equality Index for gender and LGBTQ inclusivity. Read more from their 2023 DE&I report...

CEPIC stand alongside over 200 organisations in Europe’s cultural and creative sectors who are calling on the Member States to show global leadership and approve the AI Act at the COREPER meeting scheduled today, Friday 2nd February. Read the joint statement...

In a significant development for the AI industry in Australia, the Australian Government announced it will adopt a risk-based and proportionate approach to AI regulation. Recognizing that Australia’s current regulatory framework does not adequately address the unique challenges associated with AI technologies... Read on for more.

As the AI Act approaches a critical vote by member states on 2nd February 2024, 71 organisations spanning various cultural industries have penned a collective appeal to Mr Gabriel Attal, the Prime Minister of France. The appeal, driven by concerns over potential attempts to dilute copyright protections for European AI operators, emphasises the need for a balanced approach that respects copyright while fostering innovation.

Join us for an online interactive event where we explore the legal protection of generative artificial intelligence and its copyright implications. Find out whether AI creations (output) can be protected by copyright laws in various regions of the world and the legal challenges faced by creatives and professionals. Find out whether it is desirable for AI output to be copyrighted.

CEPIC 2024 Agenda includes important dates for your diary, such as our lobbying efforts, webinars, important meetings and of course, CEPIC Congress.

CEPIC has been actively engaged in advocating for transparency and ethical considerations in the realm of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In response to the recent agreement on the AI Act, CEPIC recognises the need for careful drafting of the details. Notably, France has emerged as a leading voice in the discussions, prompting CEPIC to address the Interministerial Committee for Artificial Generative Intelligence with a letter dated 12th January 2024.

vAIsual, a valued member of CEPIC, proudly announces the launch of its PeopleMaker app on Canva, the renowned all-in-one visual communication platform. This marks vAIsual's first commercially released AI model, and it is a significant achievement for the company, being 100% legally clean.

CEPIC is thrilled to announce that registration for CEPIC Congress 2024 is now OPEN. Set to take place in the charming Juan les Pins, Antibes, nestled in the picturesque South of France, from May 15th to 17th, 2024.

With great sadness the industry has lost another pioneer of stock photography, Alfonso Gutierrez, he approached everything with passion and speed. I can attest for this after spending 8 years on the CEPIC Committee, with him as President, and travelling as a passenger in his car.

It is with deep sorrow that we bid farewell to Alfonso Gutierrez, a visionary leader who was President of CEPIC from 2013 to 2021.

In a shocking revelation, one of the largest datasets fuelling AI advancements has been removed from circulation after the discovery of disturbing content. The dataset was found to contain thousands of instances of suspected child sexual abuse material.

The European Parliament voted for culture today and preserved Europe’s cultural diversity along with consumer welfare. Creativity Works!, Europe’s leading coalition of the creative and cultural industries, welcomes the vote on the ‘Implementation of the 2018 Geoblocking Regulation in the Digital Single Market’ INI report.

This article links to the documentation of all virtual meetings held by the CEPIC Board.

On Friday 9th December the Council and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on the AI Act. CEPIC welcomes the EU AI Act Trilogue Agreement as ground-breaking legislation with the potential to set a comprehensive ethical framework for the use of AI in the EU and serve as an example worldwide. Continued...

The Commission welcomes the political agreement reached between the European Parliament and the Council on the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act), proposed by the Commission in April 2021.

We are thrilled to announce that hotel bookings for the CEPIC Congress 2024 are now open! We urge you to book your accommodation early to ensure you make the most of this exceptional experience.

Emily Shelley, the newly elected President, expresses her gratitude to members for their support and emphasises the significant impact of AI in the industry. She highlights the board's commitment to ensuring a positive shift, lobbying for transparency, copyright protection, and ethical use of generative AI.

We are thrilled to share that the Fédération Nationale des Agences de Presse Photos et Informations (F.N.A.P.P.I.) has successfully signed a significant framework agreement with Google on neighbouring rights. The agreement, inked on November 7, 2023, underlines the commitment to protecting content under the European Copyright Directive.

Following the EGM on 23rd November 2023, CEPIC confirmed a newly elected Board to serve the 2023-2025 term. We extend a warm welcome to our new President, Emily Shelley, Vice President, Gilles Devicq and newly appointed Treasurer, Sergi Griño.

We are looking forward to the elections this Thursday at our headquarters in Brussels. It is with a mixture of sadness and pride that I step down as President of CEPIC when my term ends, after what has been an important two years as President, overseeing significant changes in our organisation...

These are the main documents you need for the CEPIC EGM 2023.

The IPTC Sports Content Working Group introduces IPTC Sport Schema version 1.0, a groundbreaking standard for sports data management. This new schema, replacing SportsML, adopts a data-centric approach, offering up-to-date formats, easy querying, and support for emerging trends like e-sports. Read on for more...

In a bold move against AI encroachment, artists are adopting disruptive tools like Nightshade to inject a "poison pill" into their works, confounding future AI models. These innovative tactics signify a rising rebellion as artists strive to protect their creations in an era of evolving technology. Read on for more...

AI Act Negotiations up-date

In a resolute display of solidarity and support, the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) condemns the recent violent incident that targeted the Bureau of Agence France-Presse (AFP), a valued member of CEPIC, in Gaza City on November 2nd. This brazen attack, which resulted in significant damage to AFP's infrastructure, underscores the critical need to safeguard journalistic integrity and the safety of media professionals. The following press release is shared on behalf of EANA, reaffirming our commitment to supporting our esteemed member organisations like AFP and championing a free and secure press globally.

In a major industry development, SmartFrame Technologies, the pioneering UK-based image streaming technology provider, has announced the appointment of Alan Capel as its Chief Commercial Officer. With an impressive career spanning over 30 years in the image licensing industry, Capel brings a wealth of experience to his new role.

In a bid to unravel the endless possibilities and challenges brought forth by generative artificial intelligence (AI), the European Coalitions for Cultural Diversity (ECCD) and the Cultural Creators Friendship Group (CCFG) are joining forces. Read on for more...

In the fast-paced world of digital asset management, industry leaders and innovators converge to explore the future of visual content at Activo’s November event. CEPIC proudly attends as a silver sponsor and is looking forward to joining this dynamic gathering, contributing to the dialogue on transformative technologies and ethical practices within the realm of generative artificial intelligence and digital asset management.

In a monumental stride toward combating misinformation and preserving the authenticity of visual content, renowned camera manufacturer Leica has introduced the world's first camera with built-in Content Credentials – the Leica M11-P. In this era of advanced technology and rampant misinformation, ensuring the integrity of digital content has never been more crucial.

The comprehensive analysis of the news agencies industry in 2022 reveals interesting trends and developments within the news agency business. The report provides valuable insights into the financial dynamics, strategies, and challenges that defined the media landscape during the past year. The study has been run by EANA in partnership with the Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI) in Lugano, Switzerland, among EANA’s 32 members, all leading news agencies in European countries.

In view of the upcoming Trilogue meeting on October 24, GESAC has issued a statement emphasising the importance of record-keeping and transparency obligations concerning the use of copyright-protected content by generative AI models. These obligations are crucial to ensuring responsible and trustworthy AI systems, creating a level playing field, and fostering European innovation and artistic creation. Read on for the full statement.

CEPIC, International Association of the Media Licensing Industry, is pleased to announce the release of version 2 of its AI Ethical Guidelines for Responsible Re-Use and Production of Visual Content. The Guidelines are now also available in French. The Guidelines provide a framework for ethical and responsible use of AI in the Re-Use and Production of visual content.

In a significant development for image rights owners, the IPTC Photo Metadata Standard 2023.1 has introduced a solution to the growing concern of generative AI using copyrighted assets without permission. Many rights holders found their images being utilised as training data for AI image creators, prompting the need for a standardised way to express that such use is prohibited.

In a letter signed by 70 professional organisations in France, including CEPIC's members the UPP and SAPHIR, the creative industry has, in the context of the Trilogue on the draft European Regulation on artificial intelligence, the AI Act, turned to the French Prime Minister calling for France's strong commitment on behalf of the cultural and creative sector.

In a pivotal meeting with DG Connect - Copyright Unit, CEPIC emphasised the need for transparent and ethical AI practices. We champion responsible AI legislation, ensuring competitiveness while upholding global ethical standards. Stay tuned for updates on our proactive initiatives in shaping a morally sound AI landscape.

In the fast-paced world of AI, our recent participation in the Trilogue Negotiations on the AI Act in Brussels highlighted a critical topic: transparency. At CEPIC, our speaker, Emily Shelley, MD of Alamy, emphasised the importance of clear rules for AI companies.

Vecpho will celebrate an event in Bangkok focused on stock media professionals on October 28th, 2023. The main goal of this event is to create a space where we, as a representative agency, stock media professionals and stock media sites can connect and share experiences together. It will consist of a day with current talks, round tables, workshops, questions and answers to industry leaders, networking, presentation of new developments and much more.

CEPIC, International Association of the Media Licensing Industry, is pleased to announce the release of its AI Ethical Guidelines for Responsible Re-Use and Production of Visual Content.

The guidelines cover a wide range of topics, including data protection, bias, accountability and explainability. They provide practical recommendations to help individuals and organisations working in the visual media industry ensure that AI is used ethically and responsibly.

AI image generation technology opens up exciting creative possibilities for our customers, but it must be approached in the right way to protect the interests of Alamy content creators. As part of our commitment to exploring ethical opportunities within AI we are pleased to announce our participation in the ‘The Fair Diffusion Program’.

Bridgeman Images, the world's leading source for licensing fine art, cultural, and historical media for reproduction, is thrilled to unveil a key industry collaboration with the Reuters Pictures Archive.

DOCUMENTS AND INFORMATION FOR THE Extraordinary General Meeting

Independent visual content provider, EPA Images, today announces a five-year partnership with Canon Europe to renew and update its photography and videography equipment to confront the challenges in a changing world.

We are thrilled to announce our newest member to the CEPIC family, the esteemed news photography agency, INQUAM. Founded in 2013 by Ovidiu Micsik, INQUAM embarked on a remarkable journey with a mission to provide a safe haven for photographers affected by the aftermath of the 2008 crisis.

We are happy to confirm the date of the Extraordinary Annual General Meeting (EGM) of CEPIC A.I.S.BL. This year's meeting holds particular significance as it will include the election of a new Board to lead our organization into the future.

Getty Images (NYSE: GETY), a preeminent global visual content creator and marketplace, today announced the launch of Generative AI by Getty Images, a new tool that pairs the company’s best?in?class creative content with the latest AI technology for a commercially safe generative AI tool.

SmartFrame Technologies’ image-streaming network grows by 200 million images, thanks to a new partnership with Action Press International. This landmark collaboration sees SmartFrame’s image-streaming network now offering publishers around the world over 620 million embeddable images, free of charge.

We are thrilled to announce that CEPIC is once again proud to be a sponsor of OnDAM Paris, the premier Digital Asset Management (DAM) conference in Paris, France. This marks the third consecutive year of our support for this dynamic event.

Hello, CEPIC community! We are thrilled to introduce you to our newest team member, Lauren Fowler, who joins us as a Virtual Assistant. Lauren brings a wealth of experience, a passion for travel, and a commitment to supporting businesses like ours.

Bridgeman Images, the world's leading specialists in licensing fine art, cultural, and historical media for reproduction, are delighted to announce an exclusive partnership with ElmonX, experts at the forefront of NFT art.

At IPTC we receive many requests for help and advice regarding editing embedded photo and video metadata, and this has only increased with the recent news about the IPTC Digital Source Type property being used to identify content created by a generative AI engine.

AFP is one of the world's three major news agencies and the only one in Europe. Its mission is to provide rapid, comprehensive, impartial and verified coverage of the news and issues that shape our daily lives.

CEPIC joins 70 networks & organisations to support Culture Action Europe's Joint Initiative to secure a fair share for culture in the European Union's recovery envelope.

In this post you will find from September 2023 on key documents of Creativity Works! These documents are for CEPIC members information and may not be published outside the platform.

We are thrilled to be able to announce with good notice the return of the CEPIC Congress to the stunning shores of Juan Les Pins, Antibes from the 14th to 17th May 2024!

This is not very often that we get feedback on our lobbying efforts. For this reason I am happy to share with you the testimony of Octav Ganea, who was on a panel at CEPIC 2023 reviewing the implementation of the EU copyright Directive.

In the context of the annual budget procedure for 2024, the Council of the EU has proposed to reduce the financial envelope of Creative Europe by 40 million EUR.

The current CEPIC’s Board 2 year term is coming to an end shortly and we will be seeking to elect a new Board.

On 5th September, the French Ministry of Culture is organising an AI workshop within the conference programme "Culture and Digital Technology: a Permanent Revolution?" presented by the think tank "Think Culture!" at the Pompidou Center in Paris. CEPIC, IMATAG, the Agency VU', the ADAGP, the Gobelins School, ARCOM (French public regulatory authority for audiovisual and digital communication).

At the CEPIC Annual General Meeting on 27th June, one of the decisions had been that CEPIC supports EVA in their negotiations with VEGAP. ON 02nd August, the attached letter has been sent to Carola Streul who is EVA's secretary general.

On 25th July the AI working group and the Board of CEPIC attended an exclusive information webinar on the Robert Kneschke v.LAION case. In this post you will find the link to the recording. The CEPIC AI working group is extending and as a consequence will be restructutred with several sub-groups. Do not hesite to contact us if you are interrested!

Europe has a unique opportunity to show global leadership on an AI framework.

Documents of the CEPIC AGM of 27th June 2023

On 6th July at 17.00 H within the framework of the prestigious Arles photo festival CEPIC will take part in a round table on the ethical and legal challenges around generative AI.

vAIsual Inc, the company behind the largest visual dataset collection in the world, today launched the first of it’s non-biometric datasets, consisting of over 130,000 images of elephants, dogs and birds.

Thanks to Activo the recordings of all the sessions is available!

It was a very nice, inspiring and friendly conference in Antibes with CEPIC (Center of the Picture Industry), who had asked me to explain how the EU Copyright Directive 2019/790 has been implemented in Germany, with regard to photographers' and image rights

[London, 26 May 2023] – Alamy, the renowned provider of high-quality stock imagery and innovative solutions, regrets to announce the departure of Alan Capel, Director of Transformation, after an exceptional tenure of twenty years. Alan's contributions and dedication have played a pivotal role in shaping Alamy's success and establishing its prominent position within the industry.

The Annual General Meeting of CEPIC will take place online on 27th June 2023 from 15 H to 16 H CET.

The panel was organized by GESAC, Authors Society (CMOS) , for 90 % music but the ADAGP is a member too, in addition to being a member of EVA.

The Antipolis Convention Center of Juan les Pins, selected by CEPIC to hold its next Congress in May 2023, is now certified ISO 20121.

For delegates of the CEPIC Congress 2023: using this link and facial recognition, you will find photos of yourself from our two great photographers: Kayna Baugh and Stephen Rafferty.

What is a representation agency for microstockers for?

EPA Images and action press have expanded their EPA global video service distribution cooperation to include the entire German-speaking region.