#CopyOrRight: if a prompt and a click are all it takes, what is left of the author?
Is it fair for generative Artificial Intelligence—an immense resource to humanity—to become a threat to copyright, to the point of undermining the role of human creativity?
CISAC (International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers) has estimated a loss of €22 billion over the next five years for music and audiovisual creators.
The latest trend of “ghiblizing” photos has highlighted how blurred and unregulated the line between inspiration and copying by AI already is. Italian authors have already sensed this risk and voiced their concerns in the past months through a survey, in which they expressed deep anxiety about the impact of AI on their work and strongly urged SIAE to actively collaborate with the government to protect copyright.
In these very weeks—following initial approval by the Senate in March—the Italian Chamber of Deputies is debating a law draft proposed by the Government in 2024, which could finally introduce firm legal boundaries for the major tech players driving AI development.
SIAE has called for, and continues to advocate for, the inclusion in this legislation of a clear right for authors to prohibit, in advance, the use of their creative content to train AI systems. It also demands greater transparency regarding how these systems have been, and will be, trained.
Without a decisive shift in direction, the law risks treating AI-generated works as equal in every way to those created through human ingenuity.
On its 143rd anniversary and on World Book and Copyright Day, SIAE issues a strong call to action through a communication campaign aimed at urging lawmakers to take decisive steps in safeguarding copyright, one of the pillars of our cultural industry.
Salvatore Nastasi, President of SIAE, stated:
"We cannot allow human creativity to be sidelined by technologies that, in the absence of regulation, feed off the work of our authors. Behind every song, every film, every artistic work, there is a person, an emotion, a human intelligence. Creativity is not an algorithm—it is a unique and unrepeatable act that must be protected. Artificial Intelligence must not, and cannot, erase that. Authors have the right to be respected, heard, and protected. SIAE has always stood by them and now firmly calls on legislators to act—before it’s too late. The future of Italian culture is at stake."