During the week of 22 June, in Australia, media coverage reported on some sectors of the Government possibly considering changes to copyright law in connection with AI. If confirmed, the new direction of travel would counter the Australian Government’s repeated commitments that copyright law would not be weakened to favor AI companies, since it ruled out a new TDM exception in October last year.
The Australian Publishers Association (APA) and other creative industries organizations are going to Canberra the week of 29 June for meetings and media. Among other action, the APA will be leading a media stand-up at Parliament House on the morning of July 1, expected to include writers, musicians and other authors and artists.
That push is being supported by an Open Letter from the Australian creative industries focused on the message “Without creative content, there are no large language models. There are no AI products. No use without permission and payment for our creative content”. The open letter is open for signature by Australia’s songwriters, recording artists, authors, journalists, photographers, producers, visual artists, composers, screenwriters, playwrights and creative industry businesses.
The APA, the Australian Society of Authors and the Australian Copyright Agency remain aligned that there is no case for a statutory licence or compulsory pathway for AI use of copyright-protected works, calling on the Australian Government to “commit to the future of creativity in this country and not to trade it away”.