Declaration for Creators in the Digital Age
A collective stand from the people whose work makes the digital world worth visiting
We are the people who make the things you love.
We write the stories, compose the music, draw the worlds, build the code, capture the moments, design the experiences, and preserve the culture. We are musicians and architects, journalists and game developers, photographers and choreographers, animators and poets. We work across 43 disciplines and hundreds of specialties, in every country, in every language, on every platform. We are the creative foundation of the digital economy.
And we are being erased from our own work.
Our creative work is scraped without consent, summarized without credit, and monetized without compensation. Platforms that depend on what we make have built economies that exclude us from the value we generate. Algorithms trained on our portfolios now compete against us for our own livelihoods. The median author earns $6,080 a year. The top 1% of musicians capture 90% of streams. Across every creative field on earth, the same pattern repeats: value flows up and out, never back to the people who created it.
This is not a market correction. This is a structural failure.
We did not come here to beg for a seat at someone else's table. We came here to build our own. This Declaration is our collective stand — a statement of principles and demands from the people whose work makes the digital world worth visiting.
We are not asking permission. We are stating terms.
The Seven Principles
I. Fair Value Exchange
Creative work has economic value. That value belongs to the people who create it — not to the platforms that distribute it, the algorithms that summarize it, or the corporations that train on it. We demand economic structures where revenue flows to creators, not through them. Fair compensation is not charity. It is the baseline.
II. Creator Sovereignty & Autonomy
No one uses our work without our say. Creators hold the right to decide how, where, and whether their creative work is used — including by AI systems, search engines, and aggregation platforms. Consent is not a checkbox buried in terms of service. It is an ongoing, revocable, and informed agreement between equals. Attribution is not optional. Autonomy is not negotiable.
III. Transparent & Accessible Ecosystem
Creators deserve to know the rules of the systems they participate in. Platform algorithms, licensing terms, revenue splits, and data usage policies must be clear, accessible, and honest. No hidden extraction. No buried clauses. No moving goalposts. When the rules change, creators must be at the table — not informed after the fact.
IV. United Creator Voice
A single creator can be ignored. A million cannot. We stand together across every discipline — musicians with journalists, game developers with textile artists, architects with poets — because the forces working against us do not distinguish between genres. Our collective voice is our greatest instrument of change. We organize not to homogenize, but to amplify. What unites us is stronger than what divides us.
V. Technology in Service of Creativity
Technology should be a tool creators wield, not a force they endure. AI, blockchain, digital distribution, and emerging platforms must be designed to serve human creativity — to extend our reach, protect our rights, and multiply our impact. We reject the premise that technological progress requires creative sacrifice. The best technology makes creators more powerful, not more precarious.
VI. Global Community, Local Impact
Creative work is universal. Creative conditions are local. A street muralist in Bogota, a session musician in Lagos, and an independent game developer in Seoul face the same structural pressures through different lenses. We build a worldwide movement that respects local contexts, elevates regional voices, and ensures that solutions work for creators everywhere — not just in the markets that move the most money.
VII. Legacy & Preservation
Creative works are not disposable content. They are cultural contributions that deserve to endure. We commit to building systems that preserve creative work across generations — with rights intact, provenance clear, and creator intent honored. Digital impermanence is not inevitable. It is a choice. We choose permanence.
The Six Demands
We call on platforms, policymakers, technology companies, and industry leaders to act on these principles. Specifically, we demand:
- Mandatory consent before use. No AI system, search engine, or aggregation platform may train on, reproduce, summarize, or monetize creative work without the explicit, informed, and revocable consent of the creator. Opt-out is not consent. Silence is not consent. Burial in terms of service is not consent.
- Fair and transparent compensation. When creative work generates value — through AI training, platform distribution, licensing, syndication, or any other mechanism — creators must receive fair, timely, and transparent payment. Revenue splits, algorithmic weighting, and monetization formulas must be disclosed and auditable.
- Enforceable attribution standards. Every use of creative work must carry clear, accurate, and persistent attribution to its creator. AI-generated outputs derived from identifiable creative work must disclose their sources. Anonymizing extraction is not innovation. It is erasure.
- Collective bargaining protections. Creators — whether employees, freelancers, or independents — must have the legal right to organize, bargain collectively, and negotiate as a unified voice with platforms and industry gatekeepers. The fragmentation of creative labor into isolated gig work must not be used to deny collective power.
- Algorithmic accountability. Platforms must disclose how their algorithms surface, suppress, recommend, and monetize creative work. Creators must have meaningful input into the systems that determine their visibility and income. Black-box decision-making that shapes creator livelihoods without creator input is unacceptable.
- Long-term preservation infrastructure. Governments, institutions, and technology companies must invest in public-good infrastructure for the long-term preservation of creative works in digital formats — with rights, provenance, and creator intent maintained across technological generations. Creative culture is a public trust, not a disposable commodity.
This Declaration is a line in the sand.
We are not waiting for permission. We are not hoping the system fixes itself. We are building the infrastructure, the coalitions, and the collective power to make these principles the default — not the exception.
Every signature on this Declaration strengthens the call. Every creator who stands up makes it harder to look away. This is not one organization's fight. It is a movement across every creative discipline on earth, and it starts with a single act: adding your voice.
The people who make the things the world loves are done being invisible. We are here. We are organized. And we are not going anywhere.
Sign the Declaration. Join the movement. Save the creators.