Creators built the digital economy. It’s time creators shared in the value.
Creators supply the videos, images, writing, music, knowledge and culture that power today’s digital economy.
Platforms and AI companies can generate enormous commercial value from digital content. DCU is building a creator-led organisation to give creators greater transparency, control and collective leverage over commercial uses of their work.
Transparency
Creators should have meaningful information about how their work is being used commercially.
Control
Creators should have meaningful choices about uses of works they own or control.
Licensing
Where commercial use requires permission, creators should have legitimate routes to license their work collectively.
Remuneration
Where creator work is commercially licensed, DCU believes creators should participate in the value generated. This is not an automatic legal entitlement.
Licence. Bargain. Distribute.
An individual creator may have limited negotiating leverage with a global technology company. A collective organisation can potentially aggregate creators, rights information and mandates and negotiate collectively.
Licence → Bargain → Distribute is the framework DCU is developing. It is not an operational-at-scale system or a guarantee of income.
Join the creators building the next digital rights economy.
Founding membership is currently free under the existing DCU membership terms. Joining does not transfer copyright or automatically authorise DCU to act for you.
Join DCU