Artists rejoice as Labor rules out copyright carve-out for AI

Labor has ruled out changing copyright laws to give tech giants free rein to train artificial intelligence models on creative works, after the proposition was met with widespread backlash from artists. The government's copyright and AI reference group will meet early this week to examine whether the laws need to be refreshed, but Attorney-General Michelle Rowland stressed that any changes would not include a carve-out for developers to train their systems on Australian works. Such an exemption has been called for by parts of the tech sector and floated by the Productivity Commission in their interim report into harnessing data and digital technology, which estimated that AI could deliver a $116 billion boost to the economy over a decade. The proposal was immediately slammed by the creative sector, which warned it would give a free pass to tech giants to continue using copyrighted work without permission and take valuable income away from artists. In the days after the report was handed down, Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Industry and Science Minister Tim Ayres both said the government had "no plans" to introduce an exemption but stopped short of categorically rejecting it. But now the government has vowed it will not water down copyright protections when it comes to artificial intelligence. "This government has repeatedly said that there are no plans to weaken copyright protections when it comes to AI," Ms Rowland said on Sunday. "The tech industry and the creative sector must now come together and find sensible and workable solutions to support innovation while ensuring creators are compensated." James Dickinson, chief executive of Screenrights, which provides licensing services for film, television and radio, welcomed the clarity after calls from the creative sector for the government to make a "definitive statement" on the proposed exemption. He said a "clear signal for the tech sector that this is the end of the road" was needed so negotiations over licensing arrangements could start in earnest. Annabelle Herd, chief executive of ARIA, said there had been an ongoing conversation about the proposed exemption for months, and it was great that the government "has taken a stand on this issue". "We know that around the world, major companies have been using copyrighted works without permission, without payment, to train massive AI systems … and they're retroactively seeking permission to do that," she said. Report sought feedback on proposed carve-out The issue of a so-called text and data mining (TDM) exemption hit headlines in July, after Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar used an address at the National Press Club to urge the attorney-general to consider it. "We are in a perverse situation where copyright holders aren't seeing any more money, but we also don't see the economic upside of training and hosting models in Australia," he said. "Fixing this one thing could unlock billions of dollars of foreign investment into Australia." The following month, the government's Productivity Commission questioned whether there was a case for such an exemption, noting that they exist in other comparable countries, and flagged that they would seek feedback on the likely impacts. "It should also be noted that a TDM exception would not be a 'blank cheque' for all copyrighted materials to be used as inputs into all AI models," the report read. "The use must also be considered 'fair' in the circumstances — this requirement would act as a check on copyrighted works being used unfairly, preserving the integrity of the copyright holder's legal and commercial interests in the work." At the time, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley accused the government of being "wishy washy" in its language. "It is not appropriate for big tech to steal the work of Australian artists, musicians, creators, news media, journalism, and use it for their own ends without paying for it," she said. "We have to protect content creators, and I don't see that."