IDMLC 2025 President's Welcome
IDMLC 2025 President's Opening Remarks
Joe Naylor, President DMLA
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the 2025 International Digital Media Licensing Conference.
First, on behalf of the DMLA Board and our entire community, thank you for being here, for taking the time and making the effort to travel and be part of this event. I know there’s a lot going on right now. Tighter travel budgets, ongoing global uncertainties, and in some cases, travel disruptions, have kept a few colleagues from joining us in person this year. But we're incredibly grateful to those of you who are here.
For those of you joining virtually, we're grateful you're with us and are glad you are able to participate.
To ensure all of you are able to review the sessions with our incredible lineup of speakers and panelists, all registered attendees will get priority access to the session videos following the conference. We encourage you to share them with your teams.
I also want to take a moment to express our gratitude to our sponsors. Without their generous support, we would not be able to host this event.
A special thank you to:
• PicRights
• Orange Logic
• SIPA USA
• PICHA
• MediaViz
• CDAS
• ImageRights
• WaffleVideo.ai
• Wesog
• CopyCat Legal
• iSPY Visuals
• Adobe
And I can't say enough about the unbelievable hard work that our Executive Director Leslie Hughes and Callie Pines have put into making this conference happen. Between managing logistics and handling countless last-minute details, they've been working practically around the clock. So, thank you both.
And to our conference committee chair Mark Milstein and our Education committee chair Tom Smith, thank you for once again pulling together an amazing slate of keynotes and panelists for us to hear from and learn from this week.
This year marks DMLA's 30th annual conference, a milestone that reflects our industry's resilience and evolution. And as we look ahead, next year will mark an even greater milestone — the 75th anniversary of the organization. That's 75 years of advocating for licensors, creators, copyright, and the power of visual storytelling. We're proud of where we've come from — and even more excited about where we're headed.
As such, I also want to extend a very warm welcome to our newest members:
• Mediaviz AI
• EANA (European Association of News Agencies)
• TongRo Images
• Pixray
• Copycat Legal
• CyberMirage
• WaffleVideo.ai
The Year That Changed Everything
If I had to describe the impact that AI is having on our industry with one word, it would be disruption. Or, uncertainty. Or maybe excitement. Or fear. Or opportunity.
So maybe there's not one word. But what I can tell you is that our industry is undergoing the kind of fundamental transformation that forces us to question everything we think we know about how content is created, discovered, licensed, and valued.
Yesterday, we held our 3rd Annual DMLA AI Summit. It was an extraordinary opportunity to hear from leaders and industry experts from major tech platforms, AI innovators, content agencies, news organizations, creative firms, and legal experts from around the globe, where we addressed everything from licensing datasets for AI training to the impact AI is having on the workforce to how DMLA, through the work of our Copyright & AI and SEO & AI Search working groups, can more effectively advocate for our members and rightsholders.
In fact, it was a prelude to many of the discussions we'll be having over these next two days. AI isn't just one topic on our agenda — it's woven throughout virtually every session, every challenge, and every opportunity we face.
Transparency and Trust
To my earlier point, these are certainly very uncertain times. On the positive side, there seem to be new opportunities at every turn, yet it also seems to be interlaced with this underlying sense of angst, or even dread.
I think we all feel it to some degree. What keeps you up at night? Is it Job security? Career security? Wondering if AI is going to render your business obsolete? Or maybe it’s geopolitics or the economy? There's a lot going on in the world that's unsettling. But underneath all of these concerns is something more fundamental, an issue that many of our DMLA members have been working very hard to address: trust — or perhaps the lack thereof. Trusting what you see, what you hear.
Trust isn’t just an issue affecting professionals in our industry. It’s a societal issue. Just this past Sunday morning, my son Dylan who just turned 12 a couple of weeks ago was frustrated that YouTube was being overrun by AI, making it hard to find videos from real YouTubers. For years, he'd been able to discover great content from real YouTubers like the Oversimplified guy. If you have kids check it out, it's fantastic. But now, he says it's really hard to find new legit videos because of all the AI slop (his words) on there now.
I asked him if he could tell when something was AI. He said he could tell about half the time, so when he's uncertain, he checks the comments to see if others are saying it's AI. He said when it is AI, he also laughs at all the granny comments. Grannies, I now know, are uncs whose comments make it clear they have no idea the video isn't real.
Then he complained that AI is overrunning Roblox, too, so it's hard to find new games to play. So, he just goes back to the same 2 or 3 games that he's always played. He went on to
explain to me that the AI guys are generating knock-offs of popular human-created games that then draw the younger kids in because they don't realize it's AI. These developers then create AI bots to play their games to game the revenue system. He said you can spot them by looking at player counts. For the popular human created games that he's always played there may be tens or possibly hundreds of players playing it at any given time. But he's seen as many as 25 million players playing these AI-generated games. While this is frustrating or annoying for Dylan, it’s a killer for creators trying to get discovered on these platforms. It’s a killer to their income stream.
And, now here I am, 48 hours later, participating in a conference where we'll spend two days discussing some of these exact problems that my 6th grade son is contending with as a young consumer. Human creativity is being drowned out by AI slop. Trust is eroding. And even our kids are having to develop detection strategies to wade through the mess in search of authentic content.
Now bring that reality into our industry. When someone licenses an image or footage from your agency, they're counting on its authenticity. But how do you verify that content uploaded by a contributor is genuine and not AI-generated? And when AI enhancement is involved — which increasingly it is — how do you disclose that to your buyers in a way that maintains their trust?
These aren't theoretical questions. These are daily operational challenges that directly impact your business and your reputation. When is AI-generated or AI-enhanced content acceptable to license, or to use? When is it absolutely not OK? And how do you communicate these distinctions clearly to customers who are themselves navigating a landscape where they can't always trust what they see?
This is why Robyn Curnow's keynote this morning on "Trust & Transparency - The Future of Journalism" is so vital. In an era where deepfakes and AI-generated media can be indistinguishable from the real thing, the integrity of visual content faces unprecedented pressure. As content licensors, you're on the front lines of maintaining that integrity.
But, let me be clear, while AI-generated content presents challenges, it also presents myriad opportunities. Many of you here and across our membership create with AI every day, have developed your own models enabling your customers to create AI-generated content, or license AI-generated content. But this does open up important questions about authenticity, disclosure, and maintaining trust with your clients.
The Working Photographer's Reality
Right after Robyn's keynote, you'll hear from a panel of photojournalists who are in the trenches every day. They'll share not just their compelling images and videos, but the real
opportunities and challenges facing visual journalism in 2025. These are professionals navigating a landscape where AI can generate images in seconds, where trust in visual media is eroding, and where the economic model for professional photography is under siege.
New Risks in New Workflows
Afterwards, Sarah Lafebvre will moderate our panel on How to Keep Image Workflows and Systems Safe in the Age of AI. As AI transforms our workflows — from image analysis and tagging to search, licensing, and distribution — we're also inheriting new risks. For this panel, we've brought together experts in cybersecurity, media infrastructure, and AI to give you practical insights you can implement immediately.
Preserving What Matters
This afternoon's session on Preserving History through Content, Collaboration, and Community will remind us why this work matters. While we're focused on business models and rights management, we can't lose sight of the bigger picture.
Visual content isn't just a commodity. It's how we document history, preserve culture, and ensure that future generations can understand their past. From partnerships with HBCUs to documenting major events and protecting cultural heritage, this session will showcase the profound responsibility we carry as stewards of visual history.
Looking Ahead: Day Two Preview
Tomorrow morning, we'll shift our focus explicitly to the future. Our "Looking Forward" panel will explore the trends shaping content production, distribution, and licensing as we head into 2026. We'll examine how customer needs are evolving, how technology is transforming discovery and licensing, and what all of this means strategically for creators, publishers, and licensors.
Then we'll dive into "Generative AI: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" - an insightful panel where industry experts will unpack the real-world impact of generative AI beyond the hype. From surprising success stories to tools that fell flat to cautionary tales of initiatives gone disastrously wrong, this session will explore the full spectrum of outcomes shaping the future of AI adoption.
We'll then examine how AI is transforming advertising — from creative work to client relationships to the role of talent. And for those of you worried about discoverability in an AI-powered world, I'm looking forward to moderating our "SEO, AI & The Future of Search" panel, where we will discuss how algorithms are being rewritten and what that means for visibility and relevance.
We'll close with our always popular legal hot topics session, where members of our DMLA legal committee will update us on recent court cases, evolving AI policies, contract trends, and global regulatory developments.
Gratitude and Governance
Before I turn the stage over to Robyn, I want to acknowledge the extraordinary people who make DMLA possible.
Our Board of Directors drives our strategic direction and advocacy efforts. Our officers include Josiane Faubert serving as Vice President, Jonathan Wells as Treasurer, Thomas Smith as Secretary, Leslie Hughes as Immediate Past President, and our at-large members Anna Dickson, Steve Jones, and Mark Milstein.
Our committees, led by dedicated chairs, drive our day-to-day work and initiatives. Thomas Smith chairs our Education Committee, Chris Daniels leads Ethics and Grievances, Margaret Vincent chairs our Legal Committee, Sarah Lefebvre heads Marketing, DeSean Brown chairs Membership, and Mark Milstein leads our Technology Committee. Nancy Wolff serves as DMLA's counsel, providing invaluable legal guidance as we navigate these complex times.
I also want to thank Roxana Stingu for her leadership of our newly launched SEO & AI Search Working Group.
I should note that we currently have two committee chair positions open: Finance and Nominations & Elections. We also have one at-large Board seat available.
If you're interested in helping shape DMLA's future and serving this community at the Board level, please find me during the conference. We would welcome your expertise and fresh perspectives.
And if you're interested in joining one of our committees, find me or anyone on the board really and let us know. We would love to have you.