Creativity deserves a future
The machines learned from us. Now we write the terms.
A creative economy rewritten without its authors.
Generative systems now train on, remix and reproduce human creative work at a scale that copyright, contracts and culture were never built to handle. Across art, design, film, music, publishing, gaming, advertising and software, the same pattern repeats: the work is used, and the maker is neither asked nor paid.
Creators are left with limited transparency, attribution, consent or compensation — and as the models grow more capable, the distance only widens. The risk is a creative sector increasingly severed from the value generated by its own cultural output.
Europe does not have to choose between creators and technology. It can write the frameworks that let both flourish — and, in doing so, lead the world in creator-centric innovation rather than follow.
Sources to be mined, or authors to be paid.
That is the decision in front of Europe. Back the Future intends to write the difference.
Creator Commons.
A creator-first framework, organised around five questions the market has yet to answer.
Attribution
Recognition for creators when their work contributes to AI systems and their outputs.
Consent
Clear, machine-readable ways for creators to express how their work may be used.
Compensation
A genuine share of the economic value AI-enabled creative ecosystems generate.
Representation
A stronger creator voice in the policy and industry rooms where the rules are written.
Sustainability
Creative professions that remain viable in an increasingly automated future.
Research, infrastructure and real creator pilots.
Six work packages over thirty-six months — ending where Back the Future is strongest: public engagement.
Filed under generative AI.
Creator Commons is built for a specific Horizon Europe call — and is assembling the consortium to answer it. Back the Future joins as the creator-engagement, communication and dissemination partner.
The point isn't to stop AI. It's to make sure creators survive it.
Three decades as a creative director and crowdfunding strategist, helping creators across many countries launch projects, raise capital, build audiences and navigate technological change.
Let's build it together.
Universities, creator organisations, technology partners and cultural institutions — the consortium is forming now, ahead of the September deadline.
Seeking partners across five sectors · research & policy · creator organisations · technology & metadata · cultural institutions · public engagement