Advocacy

To our members:

As Congress considers new AI legislation, the Television Academy is proud to be among the first to endorse the bipartisan Copyright Labeling and Ethical AI Reporting (CLEAR) Act.

If passed, the CLEAR Act would require companies that train or release generative AI models using copyrighted material to disclose that use to the U.S. Copyright Office before those models are released. It also gives creators who own their copyrights a clear path to act if companies fail to comply.

Your scripts, dialogue, performances, and audiovisual work are valuable - and increasingly used to train AI systems without your knowledge. This bill helps bring that use into the open, giving creators visibility into whether their work was used and accountability when it is.

This is not the final answer. There is much more work ahead to ensure creators have real ownership, attribution, and compensation in the AI era. But this is a meaningful step toward protecting the creative work that sustains our industry.

The Television Academy applauds Senators Schiff and Curtis for introducing the CLEAR Act, and we will be in Washington, D.C. advocating for its passage on behalf of our members.

Maury McIntyre
President & CEO

As the preeminent organization representing over 27,000 television professionals from every state in the country, across all disciplines of the television industry, the Television Academy strongly supports the introduction of the bipartisan and bicameral Creative Relief and Expensing for Artistic Entertainment (CREATE) Act. Television and film have helped generations of Americans see themselves, understand others, and feel connected, while also supporting the livelihoods of countless creative professionals. These are solid, middle-class jobs that sustain families in every corner of the country.

The CREATE Act would extend and expand Section 181, an essential federal incentive for the entertainment industry, at a time when foreign incentives are putting American jobs and the economy of the domestic entertainment industry at risk. We applaud Senators Blackburn and Warnock, and Representatives Chu and Malliotakis for introducing this time sensitive legislation before Section 181 expires at the end of the year. The Television Academy looks forward to working with lawmakers on behalf of our members to expand and extend Section 181.

Read the full bill here.

Representing nearly 30,000 members across all disciplines of the television industry, the Television Academy supports the Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe (NO FAKES) Act and applauds Rep. Maria Salazar for working on this important bill. Television is built on the talent, creativity, and hard work of real people - writers, producers, and TV executives to camera operators and cinematographers who bring stories to life. As artificial intelligence and digital replication technologies evolve, it is essential to put in place meaningful protections that prevent the unauthorized and exploitative use of performers’ voices, likenesses, and creative expressions.

The Television Academy supports the NO FAKES Act to establish clear federal protections that uphold the rights of television professionals and the creative foundation of the television industry.

Read the full bill here.

The Television Academy, representing nearly 30,000 members across all disciplines of the television industry, applauds the introduction of the Content Origin Protection and Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked Media (COPIED) Act. As artificial intelligence and digital replication technologies evolve, the need for transparency is tantamount. This bill will set necessary federal transparency guidelines for marking, authenticating, and detecting AI-generated content.

Further, it gives the broad membership of the Television Academy the ability to control their voice, likeness and creative expressions, and give content owners the ability to pursue recourse if their content is used without permission. The Television Academy looks forward to helping get the COPIED Act adopted.

Read the full bill here.