Disney, The New York Times, and Adobe Form ARIAM to Shape AI Rules for the Entire Creative Economy

Furniss has said the coalition’s goal is “not to slow AI down but to ensure it is able to sustain the broader ecosystems long term” . That framing distinguishes ARIAM from an anti-AI lobbying group; it positions itself as a partner in responsible innovation rather than an obstacle.

The AARTTS Principles spell out what the coalition actually wants

ARIAM has codified its policy demands into the AARTTS Principles, a six-part framework published on its website . The principles are:

• Accountability: Clear legal liability frameworks so AI developers cannot hide behind technical complexity when their systems cause harm.
• Authorization: An adaptable licensing environment where rights holders can authorize—or refuse—the use of their content and intellectual property.
• Remuneration: A legal right to negotiate and receive payment when AI providers use protected content.
• Transparency: Mandatory disclosure by AI systems about how they collect and exploit information, the purpose of their web crawlers, and when synthetic content is being produced and distributed.
• Trust: Safeguards at both the input and output stages of AI systems that protect brand integrity and prevent harm to consumers—particularly children and young people—as well as creators and society broadly.
• Security: Adequate technical and operational safeguards to prevent misuse, protect data, and shield users and audiences.

These principles represent a detailed negotiating position aimed squarely at the data ingestion, model training, and content generation pipelines of major AI companies. It is the first time a coalition spanning this range of creative industries has produced a unified, public-facing policy framework for AI governance.

Furniss’s track record is the operating system behind ARIAM

Victoria Furniss’s career follows a clear arc that makes ARIAM a logical next step. She joined Netflix in 2015 as Vice President of Global Public Policy and previously served as Vice President of Content Protection and IP at Warner Bros . During her tenure at Netflix, she was instrumental in launching the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) in 2017, a global anti-piracy coalition that now includes more than 50 entertainment companies and film studios . ACE’s model—uniting companies to fight digital piracy through coordinated legal action—proved that fragmented creative industries can act collectively and effectively.

ARIAM applies that same coalition-building playbook to AI. Instead of dismantling pirate streaming operations, the target is now the legal and technical architecture that governs how AI companies train their models on copyrighted work.

Between her departure from Netflix and the launch of ARIAM, Furniss co-founded AiPhelion, a consultancy focused on the intersection of law, technology, and intellectual property in the AI era . AiPhelion’s stated mission is to “build understanding and collaboration between AI creators and creative professionals,” and it operates a technology product called Thelonious, which Furniss has described as being used both in AiPhelion’s consulting work and in the ARIAM coalition itself . This creates a direct operational pipeline: AiPhelion provides the strategic advice and tooling, and ARIAM translates that into collective industry leverage and policy influence.

Where ARIAM fits in a crowded coalition landscape

ARIAM enters a field that already includes the SPUR Coalition (Standards for Publisher Usage Rights), launched in February 2026 by the BBC, Financial Times, Guardian Media Group, Sky News, and Telegraph Media Group . The two organizations are complementary but distinct.

SPUR is a news-publisher coalition focused specifically on establishing technical telemetry standards and fair licensing terms for journalistic content used in AI training . It explicitly does not negotiate licenses on behalf of its members; it sets the technical and commercial conditions under which those negotiations should happen.

ARIAM is far broader in scope. It cuts across entertainment, academic publishing, music, gaming, and news—a cross-sector approach that no previous AI coalition has attempted . Crucially, ARIAM’s advocacy extends beyond compensation into liability, child safety, synthetic media transparency, and systemic guardrails. The BBC’s membership in both coalitions illustrates how the two efforts overlap but do not conflict.

ARIAM represents the creative economy’s most ambitious attempt yet to speak with one voice on AI. The coalition brings deep operational experience from the anti-piracy battles of the last decade, a detailed set of actionable policy demands, and a leader who has built successful industry alliances before. Whether AI developers engage seriously with the AARTTS Principles may determine how quickly regulation arrives from the other direction.