Evidencing the Value of Human Performance: Towards Re-thinking Performers' Rights for an AI World

This article offers a blue skies reflection on how best to re-think performers’ rights today. Legal history, as argued by one co-author in a previous CREATe Working Paper (Cooper, AI and Performers’ Rights in Historical Perspective, CREATe Working Paper 2023/09), shows that the current rules comprising performers’ rights, in Part II, UK CDPA, are neither natural nor inevitable. Therefore, in this article, we ask what role performers’ rights should play in an AI saturated world. Placing legal theory and legal history into conversation with insights into the real-world application of the law today (both academic empirical research and the testimony of one co-author), we identify a number of questions for a substantial future programme of academic research.