The music industry has welcomed a speech on AI by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in which he said “no company should use Australian books, music, art or news to build or train AI” without ensuring that creators have “control”, adding “anything less is theft”.
That statement follows increasingly fierce tech sector lobbying within Australia in recent months seeking changes to Australian copyright law that would favour AI companies that use large amounts of existing creative works to train their generative AI models.
The creative industries, including the music industry, will be hoping that Albanese’s statement is confirmation that the Australian government is sticking to its previous position on AI and copyright.
That being that no new text and data mining exceptions will be introduced into Australian copyright law to allow AI companies to use existing works without getting permission from or paying any money to creators and rightsholders.
Damian Rinaldi, CEO of Australian music publisher association AMPAL, is among those to welcome Albanese’s comments. He says, “Today, the Australian Prime Minister reaffirmed a principle that matters to creators everywhere: an artist’s creative endeavour is their work and their property”.
“Australia has demonstrated that AI innovation and copyright protection can go hand in hand”, he goes on. “We now look forward to working with the Australian government, AI companies and our international colleagues to turn that principle into practical licensing solutions. Copyright remains non-negotiable, but music publishers are ready to negotiate fair licences”.
The copyright obligations of generative AI companies have, of course, been the subject of much debate, lobbying and litigation. The creative industries are adamant that any AI company making use of existing content when training models must secure licences from the relevant creators and rightsholders.
But many AI companies argue that they can rely on copyright exceptions in certain countries - or the ‘fair use’ principle under US copyright law - to make use of existing content without getting any licences. And in those countries where there isn’t currently a copyright exception that can apply to commercial AI training - like the UK and Australia - AI companies have repeatedly argued that there should be.
Australian Attorney-General Michelle Rowland ruled out introducing any new copyright exceptions for AI companies in October last year. But that didn’t stop prolific lobbying efforts by the tech sector prompting concerns in the creative industries that the Australian government might change its position.
Then last month Scott Farquhar, Chair of the Tech Council Of Australia, strongly criticised the country’s copyright regime. He said, “if I train in Australia, I need to cut a deal with every single recording artist in the entire world, because of the way our copyright laws work”. Reckoning that simply can’t be done, he insisted that, without copyright reform, building music AI platforms in Australia is “impossible”.
Those comments resulted in significant push back from the creative industries, especially the music industry, with representatives arguing that licensing systems already exist for AI companies. It’s just that most of those businesses have so far ignored them in the hope they can get a free ride by relying on existing or future copyright exceptions.
When turning to copyright matters during his AI speech, delivered at the University Of Sydney earlier today, Albanese said, “Australian writers, musicians, artists and journalists must retain ownership and control of their work. Our laws will spell that out, plain as day. An artist’s creative endeavour is their work and their property”.
He then went on, “No company should use Australian books, music, art or news to build or train AI without the artist’s control. That includes the artist’s control of the price and value of their work. Anything less, is theft”.
Noting that this is a global debate, and relies on the Australian government working with other lawmakers around the world, the Prime Minister added, “No country has got this right yet - nowhere do artists or rightsholders have sufficient control of their work when it comes to AI training”.
Which is why, he went on, “the best way to secure the strongest copyright protections for Australian artists is for Australia to be active and involved”.