# Outreach Letter: European Digital Rights (EDRi)

**Date:** 22 November 2025
**To:** European Digital Rights (EDRi)
**From:** Palimpsest Stewardship Council
**Subject:** Creator Rights, Cultural Heritage, and AI Governance in the EU Framework

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Dear European Digital Rights,

We write to you with deep appreciation for EDRi's tireless advocacy for fundamental rights in the digital environment. As the leading European civil society network on digital rights, EDRi has been instrumental in shaping privacy protections (GDPR), challenging surveillance, defending freedom of expression, and ensuring EU digital policy serves people rather than corporate interests.

## The Palimpsest License: Digital Rights for Creative Expression

The **Palimpsest License** extends digital rights principles to creative works in the age of artificial intelligence, addressing the unconsented extraction of creative expression for AI training, the erosion of cultural context in algorithmic reproduction, and the need for meaningful consent mechanisms in AI systems.

This is fundamentally a **digital rights issue**—parallel to EDRi's core concerns around data protection, consent, algorithmic accountability, and cultural diversity.

## Alignment with EDRi's Mission

### 1. Meaningful Consent in AI Systems
**EDRi advocacy:** GDPR requires meaningful, informed consent for personal data processing.
**Palimpsest framework:** Requires explicit, informed consent for creative works to be used in AI training.

Both frameworks reject:
- Assumed extraction rights
- Opaque processing without user knowledge
- Post-hoc justifications for unconsented use
- Power imbalances that undermine genuine consent

### 2. Algorithmic Accountability and Transparency
**EDRi advocacy:** AI systems should be transparent, accountable, and subject to human oversight.
**Palimpsest framework:** AI training datasets must be disclosed, and AI-generated content must reveal its sources through synthetic lineage tags.

Both frameworks insist on:
- Disclosure of how systems process inputs
- Traceability of outputs to inputs
- Mechanisms for accountability and remedy
- Protection against "black box" exploitation

### 3. Cultural Diversity and Minority Rights
**EDRi advocacy:** Digital policy must protect linguistic and cultural diversity, particularly minority and marginalised communities.
**Palimpsest framework:** Protects cultural heritage, indigenous knowledge, diaspora narratives, and minority language literatures from decontextualised AI extraction.

Both frameworks recognise that:
- Technology can amplify existing power imbalances
- Minority communities face particular digital rights vulnerabilities
- Cultural context is essential, not incidental
- Community sovereignty matters in digital governance

### 4. EU AI Act Implementation
**EDRi advocacy:** The EU AI Act should meaningfully protect fundamental rights, not just rubber-stamp industry self-regulation.
**Palimpsest framework:** Provides concrete mechanisms for creative rights protections that complement AI Act requirements.

Both frameworks support:
- Rights-based AI governance
- Meaningful enforcement mechanisms
- Transparent standards and compliance
- Civil society participation in AI regulation

## Critical EU Policy Intersections

### 1. AI Training and Copyright Directive
The EU Copyright Directive (2019) includes text and data mining (TDM) exceptions, but:
- **Article 4** allows rightholders to opt out of TDM
- **Implementation varies** across member states
- **Enforcement mechanisms** remain unclear
- **Cultural context protections** are absent

Palimpsest provides:
- Clear opt-out/opt-in mechanisms (machine-readable)
- Cultural context preservation requirements
- Enforcement through Dutch/Scottish legal frameworks
- Attribution standards for AI-generated content

### 2. GDPR Parallels for Creative Data
Personal data and creative works both deserve protection:

| GDPR Principle | Palimpsest Equivalent |
|----------------|----------------------|
| Informed consent | AI training consent |
| Right to erasure | Training data removal rights |
| Data portability | Metadata portability |
| Transparency | Synthetic lineage disclosure |
| Purpose limitation | Specified use constraints |

### 3. Digital Services Act and Platform Accountability
DSA requires platforms to address illegal content and systemic risks. Palimpsest addresses:
- **AI-generated content** without proper attribution (potential copyright violation)
- **Cultural appropriation** at scale via AI systems
- **Systemic risks** to creative industries and cultural diversity
- **Transparency obligations** for AI training data disclosure

### 4. Data Governance Act and Cultural Data
The Data Governance Act addresses data sharing and altruism. Creative works raise questions:
- Should cultural heritage institutions share digitised works for AI training?
- How can indigenous communities control cultural data?
- What consent mechanisms enable data altruism without exploitation?
- How do we balance openness with cultural sovereignty?

Palimpsest provides frameworks for cultural data governance.

## How Palimpsest Works

### Technical Mechanisms
1. **Informed Consent Signalling** – Machine-readable metadata (JSON-LD) indicating AI training permissions
2. **Synthetic Lineage Tags** – Embedded attribution in AI-generated content
3. **Cultural Context Preservation** – Mandatory metadata for emotional lineage, community origin
4. **Quantum-Proof Traceability** – Future-resistant attribution mechanisms

### Legal Framework
- **Primary jurisdiction:** Netherlands (GDPR compliance, strong moral rights)
- **Enforcement:** Scottish courts (European legal tradition)
- **Bilingual:** Dutch (legally binding) + English (accessible)
- **EU-compatible:** Designed to complement EU digital rights frameworks

### Governance Model
- **Multi-stakeholder council** – Creators, legal experts, technologists, cultural advocates
- **Transparent processes** – Public proposals, community input
- **Rights-based approach** – Fundamental rights inform all decisions

## Proposed Collaboration with EDRi

### 1. EU AI Act Implementation
Collaborating on:
- **Civil society participation** in AI Act technical standards development
- **Fundamental rights assessments** for generative AI systems
- **Training data transparency** requirements and enforcement
- **Cultural heritage protections** in AI governance frameworks

### 2. Copyright and Creator Rights Advocacy
Working together on:
- **TDM exception implementation** across EU member states
- **Creator consent mechanisms** for AI training
- **Attribution standards** for AI-generated content
- **Platform accountability** for AI training data sourcing

### 3. Cultural Diversity and Minority Rights
Developing positions on:
- **Indigenous data sovereignty** in EU contexts
- **Minority language AI training** ethics and community consent
- **Diaspora cultural heritage** protection from appropriation
- **Regional cultural content** preservation in AI systems

### 4. Digital Rights Education
Creating resources for:
- **Civil society organisations** working on AI and culture
- **Cultural heritage institutions** navigating AI data governance
- **Minority communities** asserting digital cultural rights
- **Creators and artists** understanding EU digital rights frameworks

### 5. Policy Development and Advocacy
Coordinating on:
- **European Parliament engagement** – AI, culture, and fundamental rights
- **European Commission consultations** – DG CONNECT, DG EAC (culture)
- **Member state advocacy** – Particularly Netherlands, Scotland/UK (post-Brexit cooperation)
- **Council of Europe** – Cultural rights and AI governance

## Case Studies Relevant to EDRi

### Minority Language Rights
**Scenario:** AI systems train on Catalan, Basque, Frisian, or other minority language content without community consultation, generating "minority language" content that lacks cultural competence.

**Digital rights concern:** Minority linguistic communities lose control over their cultural expression.
**Palimpsest protection:** Community consent mechanisms and cultural context preservation.

### Migrant and Diaspora Narratives
**Scenario:** AI trains on migrant community storytelling, generating "diverse" content for corporate use without community benefit or cultural understanding.

**Digital rights concern:** Exploitation of marginalised communities' creative expression.
**Palimpsest protection:** Collective licensing enabling community governance and revenue sharing.

### Surveillance and Writer Safety
**Scenario:** AI training on pseudonymous or exile writers' work reveals stylistic patterns that could compromise author safety in authoritarian contexts.

**Digital rights concern:** Privacy and safety of at-risk individuals.
**Palimpsest protection:** Pseudonym protection provisions and consent mechanisms that account for safety risks.

## Invitation to Collaboration

We would be honoured to work with European Digital Rights to:

1. **Participate in EDRi working groups** – AI, copyright, cultural diversity
2. **Contribute to EU policy advocacy** – AI Act, DSA, copyright implementation
3. **Develop educational resources** – Creator rights in EU digital frameworks
4. **Support member organisations** – Particularly those working on culture, minority rights, creator advocacy
5. **Coordinate international advocacy** – Connecting EU frameworks with global digital rights movements

Would you be available for an initial conversation? We are flexible regarding format—video conference, participation in EDRi meetings, written exchange, or in-person meeting in Brussels or elsewhere.

## Contact Information

**Palimpsest Stewardship Council**
Email: [contact information to be provided]
Repository: https://github.com/[repository-path]
Documentation: [documentation URL]

Thank you for your consideration. European Digital Rights has demonstrated that civil society advocacy can meaningfully shape digital policy to protect fundamental rights. We aspire to extend those principles to ensuring creative expression retains its cultural context, meaningful attribution, and creator control in the age of artificial intelligence.

In solidarity for digital rights and cultural diversity,

**The Palimpsest Stewardship Council**

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## Appendices Available Upon Request

- Full text of Palimpsest License v0.4 (English and Dutch)
- EU AI Act compliance framework
- GDPR parallels for creative data protection
- Minority language and cultural heritage protections
- Technical specifications: JSON-LD metadata, consent signalling
- Comparative analysis: EU copyright directive and AI training
