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Beyond the ban? How to regulate platform design to protect minors under the Digital Services Act
On 21 April 2026, the Florence Observatory on Digital Regulation (FLODIR) hosted a workshop examining the tension between the Digital Services Act’s (DSA) risk-based framework and the increasing global trend toward age-based social media...
On 13 April and 11 May, the Centre for a Digital Society (CDS) and the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF) hosted two policy-oriented webinars examining the evolving relationship between copyright law, artificial intelligence (AI), remuneration, and the future of news.
While closely connected, the two events approached these issues from complementary angles. The first focused on the challenges of ensuring fair and proportionate remuneration for creators in the age of AI, bringing together multidisciplinary perspectives. The second turned to the media sector, exploring imbalances in bargaining power and market dynamics shaping interactions between publishers and digital platforms that increasingly act as essential gateways to audiences.
Across both discussions, a central topic emerged: the need to rethink how value is created, distributed, and sustained in an AI-driven information ecosystem.
Renumeration in the age of AI: in between copyright and innovation policy
The April event highlighted the complexity of ensuring fair remuneration within existing legal frameworks. Current EU copyright rules, particularly those governing fair and proportionate remuneration, were discussed as providing an important foundation, yet one that remains unevenly implemented across Member States. Divergent national approaches, varying interpretations of key concepts such as the “value gap,” and differing roles assigned to collective management mechanisms all contribute to an evolving and sometimes fragmented landscape.
At the same time, the interaction between different layers of copyright protection, such as author rights and press publishers’ rights, raises new questions, especially in the context of AI systems that blur the boundaries between protected works, data, and information.
From an economic and policy perspective, the debate explored alternative approaches to regulating the use of copyrighted content in AI training. Different models, ranging from statutory licensing schemes to opt-out mechanisms and data-sharing frameworks, were considered in terms of their ability to balance incentives for innovation with sustainable remuneration for creators. While no single solution clearly prevails, there is growing recognition that the design of these mechanisms will have long-term implications for both creative production and technological development.
Legal and doctrinal discussions further highlighted the challenges AI poses to established copyright concepts. Emerging technical notions, such as memorisation in Machine Learning systems, invite renewed reflection on core rights like reproduction and communication to the public, suggesting the need for nuanced and adaptable interpretations of existing rules.
These reflections converged into a series of broader policy questions: how copyright should evolve in light of AI training practices, which combinations of regulatory tools can best ensure a fair allocation of value, and whether different phases of generative AI systems should be treated distinctly within remuneration frameworks.
The press publishers’ right through the lens of EU competition policy and digital markets regulation
The May event shifted the focus to the news sector, examining negotiations over the use of press content for platform distribution and AI training. The discussion highlighted persistent asymmetries in bargaining power, as well as the growing role of regulatory and competition authorities in shaping fairer negotiation outcomes.
Implementation of press publishers’ rights across jurisdictions was identified as uneven, prompting the emergence of hybrid regulatory approaches that combine copyright and competition law tools. At the same time, enforcement initiatives and evolving case law point toward a more structured framework of reciprocal rights and obligations between publishers and platforms at the European level.
From a market perspective, ongoing efforts to secure fair compensation for the use of journalistic content remain central. The economic sustainability of news production is increasingly intertwined with the terms under which content is accessed, reused, and integrated into AI systems.
Several key issues stood out across the debate. The question of how to define and measure the “value of news” remains open, with limited empirical benchmarks to guide remuneration. The distinction between unprotected facts and protected content is becoming more difficult to operationalise in AI contexts. At the same time, the integration of generative AI features, such as generative search interfaces, may intensify substitution effects in news consumption, raising new challenges for both copyright and competition frameworks.
Taken together, these discussions underscore the importance of continued interdisciplinary dialogue to channel future policy development at the intersection of AI, media, competition and copyright. At their core lies a fundamental question:
how to ensure that innovation and information ecosystems evolve in ways that remain both economically sustainable and socially beneficial for all the actors involved, avoiding human displacement and lower incentives to creativity.
The two webinars offered a timely and multifaceted contribution to ongoing reflections on the governance of AI, the sustainability of journalism, and the future of content regulation in Europe. By bringing together diverse perspectives and fostering an open exchange of ideas, they underscored the importance of continued dialogue at the intersection of law, technology, and media policy.
More about the CDS
To stay informed about upcoming initiatives, policy events, research activities, and training opportunities, we invite you to follow the official webpages and LinkedIn profiles of the Centre for a Digital Society (CDS) and the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF).
Forthcoming CDS activities that continue to engage with these critical themes include the upcoming EUI-MPI Conference on IP, Competition and Innovation, co-organised with the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition (15-16 October), which will explore key issues at the crossroads of innovation policy, competition, and intellectual property; the Florence Autumn Competition School (19-22 October 2026), focusing on recent policy developments and emerging challenges in competition law; and a new DigiTalk session “From distortive uses to new limits: towards an abuse-of-rights logic in IP law” (15 June, 10.00-11.30 CEST), dedicated to current research on the evolving limits and functions of intellectual property rights in patent, trademark and copyright case law. Together, these initiatives reflect a shared commitment to advancing interdisciplinary research and policy debate on some of the most pressing questions shaping Europe’s digital future.