Protecting Cultural Diversity and Creators’ Rights in a Global Free Trade Landscape

At the ALAI 2024 conference in Santiago, Chile, Professor Giuseppe Mazziotti highlighted Fair MusE’s research on balancing cultural diversity and free trade within the EU’s digital music licensing landscape.

Insights from ALAI Chile 2024 on EU Digital Music Licensing

Founded in 1878 under the vision of Victor Hugo, the Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale (ALAI) has been at the forefront of defending authors’ rights, supporting a global network of legal scholars, practitioners, and creators dedicated to the fair treatment and recognition of creative works. ALAI has continuously adapted to address the evolving challenges of copyright and authorship rights across changing legal, cultural, and technological landscapes. Over the decades, it has served as an essential forum for discussing and advancing copyright principles that protect authors, ensuring their creative output can be recognised, controlled, and fairly compensated in an increasingly globalised market.

In keeping with this mission, the 2024 ALAI conference in Santiago del Chile—held on October 24-25—focused on the impact of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) on copyright and the transferability and commercial exploitation of authors’ rights. This year’s conference was particularly concerned with how FTAs influence the scope and management of these rights across borders, often creating tensions between commercial policies, trade secrecy – especially in the tech sector – and the protection of cultural diversity. The conference addressed a complex and timely issue: how can legal frameworks facilitate free trade while preserving authors’ rights and economic interests, ensuring that they maintain a degree of control over the transfer and exploitation of their works?

Giuseppe Mazziotti (Abreu Professor in Law and Innovation, Católica Global School of Law), Stephen Edwards (Member of the Entertainment and Media Industry Group, Reed Smith, United Kingdom) and Claudio Ossa (Head of the Department of Intellectual Rights at the Chilean National Service of Cultural Heritage)

Against this backdrop, Professor Giuseppe Mazziotti delivered a presentation titled “Cultural Diversity and Free Trade in Europe’s Digital Music Licensing Landscape.” His talk featured in the conference’s third session, which delved into both the challenges and opportunities posed by FTAs for copyright and related rights management, emphasising the critical need to balance economic growth with cultural diversity protections.

In his presentation, Professor Mazziotti unpacked the complexities of digital music licensing within the European Union, highlighting the intricate dynamics between cultural diversity and free trade agreements in a legal framework – the European Union – where cultural and linguistic diversity is protected at a constitutional level. He examined the pressing challenges in securing fair remuneration for creators in digital markets dominated by user data exploitations on social media platforms and music streaming services that implement “freemium” and subscription-based models. While these models expand access for users, they treat music exploitation data as trade secrets, making it difficult or impossible for right-holders to determine fair compensation.

Mazziotti also touched on the EU’s 2019 Digital Single Market (DSM) Directive, which aims to improve transparency and alleviate information asymmetries between digital platforms and right-holders, including composers and performers. However, he noted the persistent challenges posed by trade secrecy laws and unrestricted copyright transferability, which contribute to data fragmentation and hinder fair compensation for creators in multi-territorial licensing contexts.

“The 2024 ALAI conference provided an exceptional opportunity to showcase Fair MusE’s contributions and engage with global peers dedicated to advancing copyright law and promoting cultural diversity in the digital era.”

The conference provided an invaluable forum for Fair MusE to present its preliminary findings, highlighting technical and regulatory challenges that demand collaborative solutions and strong cross-continental dialogue. Reflecting on the experience, Professor Mazziotti commented, “The 2024 ALAI conference provided an exceptional opportunity to showcase Fair MusE’s contributions and engage with global peers dedicated to advancing copyright law and promoting cultural diversity in the digital era.”