The Blue Highway Beacon: Vol. III, NO. 4
- Jul 20
- 9 min read
Updated: Jul 24
The International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) Paris Commitment: Protecting Human Creativity in the Age of AI
Global Creators Meet in Paris to Launch the Paris Commitment in Relation to the Transparency of, and Remuneration for, Creators whose Works have been Hijacked by AI Companies.
…And, to Celebrate 100 years of International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC).
By Amanda Harcourt, Blue Highway Advisory, Executive Vice President for Intellectual Property and the Entertainment Sectors
CISAC is the now century-old international body that governs the activities of authors’ royalty collection societies across the world. They monitor the data standards and governance of the activities, that is, of the Collective Management Organisations (CMOs), which are in some parts of the world referred to as PROs.
Founded in 1926, some 225 member societies in more than 110 countries rest under the CISAC umbrella. These CMOs represent more than five million authors from all geographic areas and all artistic repertoires: music, audiovisual, drama, literature and the visual arts.
So, just a short time ago in June, I joined creators from across the world to celebrate 100 years of the work of these vital organisations, upon which so many creators rely. Composers and lyricists, scriptwriters, literary authors, artists and audio-visual directors all rely upon the CMOs for the administration of revenues generated when works are exploited by third parties.
Björn Ulvaeus
CISAC President and ABBA founder Björn Ulvaeus launched the June Paris gathering with a powerful and ultimately uplifting speech.
He explored our societal relationship with Artificial Intelligence, a technological development that concerns, and frankly gravely threatens the livelihood of every creator worldwide.
While admitting that AI was a “fantastic tool” in songwriting, Ulvaeus suggested that we all need to fully understand what we are dealing with. He began by asking us all, “…Does the source of a piece of art matter? ... If it moves you, genuinely moves you, reaches something real inside you, does it matter whether a human made it? ... [if] you later discover it was made by a machine, does that change what has happened to you?”
Pointing out that the machine has no “skin in the game,” as creators worry what will happen to their work and income, Ulvaeus’ battle cry could be described as:
“Human creativity is not just expression. It is testimony. A life lived. The song is not just a product. It is evidence.”
Ulvaeus argued that if we continue to define ourselves by reference to what we can express in language, our identity will begin to erode. Instead, he offered, the value of human creativity is fundamentally tied to lived experience, something technology is unable to reproduce. “…[T]erritory that AI cannot fully colonise lies in non-verbal feeling and embodied experience,” he said.
In the following presentation from CISAC’s Director General, Gadi Oron, Gadi insisted that culture is not a luxury. He led us back to CISAC’s inception and its initial, legacy work in safeguarding public performance rights in Paris.
This was an initiative that, in a delightfully odd way, began as a result of a legendary contretemps over a bar bill.
Most chilling for me as Gadi spoke was a quote he summoned that has been attributed to the first Congress of CISAC 100 years ago, in June of 1926. The organisations collectively fighting to secure fair remuneration for their creator members had come together to share experiences and to strengthen their work protecting and lobbying for the interests of authors, and to improve their own internal systems.
From this event all that time ago, there is a minuted reference to “the parasitical, noxious intermediaries who deprive [creators] of the money owed to [them].”
In 1926!
As the French say: “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.”
The CISAC Paris Commitment
Notably, CISAC’s pivotal centennial celebrations this year were framed by the unveiling of the “Paris Commitment.” This is a declaration that sets out vital principles urging governments, technology companies and cultural industries to ensure human creators remain protected, recognised and fairly remunerated in the Artificial Intelligence era. The Commitment was heartily supported by the Congress, and was endorsed onstage by a group of creators that included Björn Ulvaeus, Electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre, Youssou N'Dour (more on Youssou below), British Painter Adelaide Damoah, Singer, Songwriter and the UK’s Lord Kevin Brennan, and French Visual Artist Rebecca Digne, among many others.
The four principles within the Paris Commitment are as follows:
Creativity is a fundamental human endeavour and must be actively protected. Human creators are the source of artistic expression and cultural diversity. Local stories, languages, voices and traditions are the lifeblood of vibrant and diverse communities and must never be diminished.
Innovation must strengthen – not weaken - creative value. Technological progress must respect creators’ rights through transparency, licensing and fair remuneration. AI should support human creativity, not exploit it.
Collective management is essential to a fair and sustainable creative ecosystem. Strong collaboration among creators, collective management organisations, cultural institutions and industry partners is vital to ensuring creators can thrive and continue contributing to society and culture.
Governments and decision-makers must act to safeguard the future of creativity. Policy and regulation must evolve to uphold creators’ rights, ensure accountability towards rightsholders, and safeguard the diversity and integrity of cultural expressions.
CISAC is now inviting creators, rights organisations and those around the world who care about and support the interests of the talents behind the creative industries to add their names to the CISAC Paris Commitment through a public signing campaign:
Blue Highway Advisory’s followers and partners are enthusiastically asked to join the effort!
The 100 Influential Years of CISAC
While one could describe CISAC as a powerhouse of global lobbying, CISAC’s Paris audience was not made up of lawyers, lobbyists, or CMO executives. Rather, this audience was largely comprised of creators - the artists, composers, writers and film directors who are responsible for the very work that global audiences treasure. And they willingly give of their time for free - “giving back,” in the words of African superstar Youssou N'Dour.
They take time away from their studios, keyboards, pencils, easels or film sets and lend their energy, their insight and their time to the weighty task of fighting to preserve the future livelihoods of their peers.
And these are not creators who are past their best, looking for something else to do. They are busy, successful creators who know what is at stake, and commit their valuable time to benefit others.
They all very definitely have valuable skin in the game.
Try a few:
Youssou N'Dour
Newly appointed as a Vice-President of CISAC is Youssou N'Dour. To say that Youssou is a Senegalese singer, songwriter, musician, composer and politician is to wildly understate his creative power and international reputation.
Culturally, N'Dour is Wolof, a Niger-Congo ethnic group native to Senegambia region of West Africa, and according to Rolling Stone is "perhaps the most famous singer alive" in Senegal and much of Africa. On his maternal side he has connections to the traditional griot caste – West African oral historians, storytellers, poets, musicians and singers of praise (in Youssou’s case as a Mouride, a Senegalese Sufi order).
Performing since he was 16 years old, Youssou ultimately formed the group Super Étoile de Dakar which produced four albums on cassette in just a few months and who eventually evolved into his backing band. They garnered a worldwide reputation.
Youssou mixes traditional Senegalese "mbalax" with a host of musical influences ranging from rumba to hip hop and jazz. His international fan base of millions has led to collaborations in the West with an eclectic mix of performers such as Sting, Peter Gabriel (amongst others the smash hit album So, and where I first met Youssou), French Celtic musician Alan Stivell, Neneh Cherry (7 Seconds), Wyclef Jean, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Tracy Chapman, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Dido and Lou Reed.
Readers unfamiliar with the suppleness of N'Dour’s liquid vocal mastery might try this:
From April 2012 to September 2013, Youssou N'Dour was Senegal's Minister of Tourism and has developed a significant role in Senegal’s media environment.
Wally Badarou
The multi-talented Waliou Jacques Daniel Isheola, aka "Wally" Badarou, was born in France of Benin ancestry. Best known for his close musical relationship with Level 42, (the de facto 5th member) and a writer, performer, actor and record producer, Wally is a prolific co-creator as a renowned session man.
His work features on countless recordings with some of the world’s famous and celebrated artists, to much younger musicians in the earliest stages of their careers. Close friends with Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, Badarou was one of the legendary Compass All Stars (with Sly & Robbie, Mikey Chung, Uziah Thompson and Barry Reynolds). Together they were the in-house session band working on a stellar line up of albums by Grace Jones, Joe Cocker, Jimmy Cliff, Mick Jagger, Gregory Isaacs and Black Uhuru.
Badarou’s distinctive keyboard sound can be heard on albums by Marianne Faithfull, Robert Palmer, Herbie Hancock, Talking Heads, Miriam Makeba, Manu Dbango, Foreigner and Power Station, among countless others. Anyone who played Wally’s “Name the Song” guessing game from the stage at London’s Jazz Café earlier this year will know he crafts instantly recognisable Badarou keyboard riffs:
As a record producer, Badarou’s wonderful ears have informed albums by stars such as Fela Kuti, Salif Keita, and, of course, Marianne Faithfull. He has scored movies such as Kiss of the Spider Woman, and his work has been featured in movies including Polanski’s Frantic, Sidney Lumet’s The Morning After, and John McTierman’s The Thomas Crown Affair.
In 1989, as France celebrated the Bastille Day Bicentennial, Badarou was engaged as composer and musical director for the commemorative extravaganza created by renowned event designer Jean-Paul Goude.
Wally Badarou is no stranger to working in service of his peers. He has been a main Board director of French CMO SACEM from 2012 until recently. He helped organise the Kora All Africa Music Awards in 1997, while he co-wrote and produced the charity album So Why, a call against ethnic cleansing in Africa, featuring Youssou N'Dour and Papa Wemba, for the International Committee of the Red Cross. And, along with fellow musical luminaries, he founded the African Music Academy in 2014.
Eddie Schwartz
Canadian Eddie Schwartz built on his 1980s recording career to become a hugely successful songwriter and record producer. His career spans more than five decades, and is comprised of more than 200 songs recorded by renowned artists, a string of international hits and pre-streaming-era physical sales well in excess of 65 million units worldwide.
Eddie’s songs have been recorded by the likes of Carly Simon, Rita Coolidge, Joe Cocker, the Doobie Brothers, Robert Palmer, Meatloaf, Donna Summer and America. His international hit for Pat Benatar, Hit Me with Your Best Shot has had multiple cover versions by artists from Dolly Parton and Kelly Clarkson to the cast of Glee! For those of you curious about his mastery of song, try the incomparable Joe Cocker’s rendition of Eddie’s powerful I Stand in Wonder:
Eddie is a Member of the Order of Canada and of the Canadian songwriters’ Hall of Fame, a winner of numerous JUNO and BMI awards, and a recent recipient of SOCAN’s prestigious Cultural Achievement award.
As a respected, tireless and effective champion for creators’ rights, Eddie served two terms as president of the Paris-based International Council of Music Creators (CIAM) and has been president of the independent songwriter and composer alliance, Music Creators North America (MCNA). Schwartz is a board member of Fair Trade Music International and served six terms on the board of Canadian Music authors CMO, SOCAN.
Lorenzo Ferrero
It was not all rock and roll in Paris. Respected Italian classical composer, librettist, author and book editor Lorenzo Ferrero is a longtime supporter of CISAC. Lorenzo began serving on the board of Italian music authors’ CMO SIAE in 2007.
In addition, during his two terms as president of the music authors’ council (CIAM), Lorenzo was largely responsible for CIAM’s emergence into a truly international body, drawing in a commitment from music author bodies in Asia Pacific in particular. This extraordinary effort resulted in his being appointed CIAM’s Honorary President in 2017.
Lorenzo started composing at an early age, and at university he studied music and philosophy. He has written more than a hundred compositions, twelve operas, three ballets and numerous orchestral and chamber music pieces, as well as solo instrumental and vocal works.
His works continue to be performed throughout Europe and North America, particularly in Italy, Germany, France, Great Britain, Spain, Finland and Russia. His most popular works include Marilyn, La Figlia del Mago, Salvatore Giuliano, Charlotte Corday and La Conquista. The latter opera, addressing the major episodes of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, is in two acts and, most unusually, has a libretto in three languages: English, Spanish and Nahuatl - a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. His story of locating a living speaker of this disappearing Nahuatl language once kept me engrossed on a long bus ride through a tropical night in Costa Rica. In 2014 a rose, Conquista, was named after the opera.
Lorenzo has long been active as an organizer of cultural events, such as the Puccini Festival and the Arena di Verona. In 1999, he co-founded and coordinated the "Festa della Musica," a showcase of classical, jazz and world music held in Milan. He has completed the orchestration of the third version of La Rondine by Giacomo Puccini and for the 150 years’ celebration of the unification of Italy, he was commissioned one act the opera “Risorgimento!”:
Lorenzo has established a Turin-based foundation dedicated to promotion of and research into his own work, its cultural context, and the people with whom he collaborated. The foundation also assists organization of cultural events and institutions, and the international organizations in defending authors’ rights and copyright.
There were a host of other speakers throughout this centenary CISAC General Assembly, and they included creators and cultural leaders from across music, audiovisual and visual arts, and publishing. Alongside them were representatives from the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), the African Union, the European Parliament and leading international cultural institutions.
So, to support the futures of the world’s creators, and lend your voice to the CISAC Paris Commitment, please sign here:
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