The European Independent Media Publishers (EIMP) has responded to the European Commission’s targeted consultation on a Better Copyright Environment for European Creativity and Innovation, outlining a vision that balances the rapid evolution of generative AI with the need to sustain a highly competitive and pluralistic media market. Download our contribution here.
As generative AI fundamentally redefines how content is discovered and delivered, access to cutting-edge AI technologies has become essential for independent publishers to scale reporting and compete effectively against legacy media. While a strong copyright protection is critical, EIMP cautioned that the application of these rules must remain proportionate to protect fundamental rights and the business models of digital-native SMEs.
In its contribution, EIMP strongly advocated for thoroughly enforcing the existing legal framework, specifically Article 4 of the CDSM Directive and Article 53 of the AI Act, rather than reopening EU copyright legislation. We emphasized that top-down mandatory statutory licensing or Extended Collective Licensing schemes risk removing direct rightsholder control, creating bureaucratic friction, and disproportionately favoring traditional legacy publishers over innovative digital outlets.
Beyond AI, EIMP addressed the ongoing challenge of piracy, warning against broad and automated infrastructure-level measures, such as indiscriminate IP or DNS blocking. Given the exceptionally short lifespan of local news, erroneous content takedowns due to a lack of contextualization can inflict immediate and irrecoverable traffic and revenue losses on small publishers.
To secure a sustainable digital ecosystem, EIMP laid down three critical priorities for European policy makers: (i) prioritizing the enforcement of existing rules under the AI Act, DSA, EMFA, and CDSM rather than adding new legislation; (ii) operationalizing Text and Data Mining (TDM) opt-outs through common, machine-readable technical standards and transparent General Purpose AI (GPAI) dataset summaries; and (iii) safeguarding against overblocking by relying on targeted anti-piracy remedies, judicial oversight, and voluntary, market-driven commercial agreements.
Moving forward, EIMP reaffirms its commitment to engaging as a trusted institutional partner with the European Union. Ultimately, we champion a policy framework that embraces technological progress without sacrificing the independence and pluralism of Europe’s diverse local media ecosystem.
About EIMP
The European Independent Media Publishers association – EIMP, is a pan-European association consisting of national associations of media publishers and individual publishers that are active in the sector of media publishing in Europe. EIMP represents innovative, independent, local and regional outlets that rely on online channels to grow and reach audiences, and promotes media pluralism and an ecosystem that fosters growth for small, independent and innovative (digital-native) media publishers. EIMP was established in 2015 when the European Commission launched its copyright reform, in order to take part in the debate and ensure the new rules support our members. EIMP represents over 2000 media outlets across Europe. In addition to voluntary membership contributions, EIMP is supported by Google. Contact: secretariat@eimp.eu