\u201cAustralian creatives are not only world class, but they are also the lifeblood of Australian culture, and we must ensure the right legal protections are in place,\u201d Rowland said.<\/p>\n
The commission sparked outrage in August after its interim report<\/a> on \u201charnessing data and the digital economy\u201d suggested granting an exemption to copyright laws that would effectively allow technology companies free access to content to train their AI models.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n Weeks earlier, Scott Farquhar<\/a>, the co-founder of software giant Atlassian and chair of the Tech Council of Australia, told the National Press Club that \u201cfixing\u201d the existing restrictions could \u201cunlock billions of dollars of foreign investment into Australia\u201d.<\/p>\n The proposal prompted serious pushback from creatives, including First Nations rapper Adam Briggs<\/a>, who told a parliamentary inquiry in September that it would be \u201chard to get the genie back in the bottle\u201d if companies were allowed access to locally made content without fair compensation.<\/p>\n Australian author Anna Funder wrote that large-scale AI systems were being founded on \u201cthe wholesale, unauthorised appropriation of every available book, work of art and piece of performance that can be rendered digital\u201d.<\/p>\n At the same inquiry, the Productivity Commission revealed it had not consulted creatives or modelled the impact of the recommendation before publishing its report, leading the Greens senator, Sarah Hanson-Young, to declare the government agency had \u201cmisread the value of the creative industry\u201d.<\/p>\n The Australian Council of Trade Unions also sounded the alarm on the proposal, warning that it would open the door to the \u201crampant theft\u201d of creative work.<\/p>\n Senior government ministers had played down<\/a> the prospects of granting a so-called \u201ctext and mining\u201d exemption, but Rowland\u2019s statement marks the first time it has been explicitly ruled out.<\/p>\n \u201cArtificial intelligence presents significant opportunities for Australia and our economy; however, it\u2019s important that Australian creatives benefit from these opportunities too,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The attorney general will convene the government\u2019s copyright and AI reference group on Monday and Tuesday to canvass other options for responding to the challenges posed by the evolving technology.<\/p>\n That includes whether a new paid licensing framework under the Copyright Act should replace the existing voluntary regime.<\/p>\n The Australian Recording Industry Association (Aria), which was among the creatives campaigning against the exemption, welcomed the announcement as a \u201ccritical step in the right direction\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a win for creativity and Australian culture, including First Nations culture, but it\u2019s also a win for common sense. Current copyright licensing structures work,\u201d the chief executive of Aria, Annabelle Herd, said.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cThey are the foundation of the creative economy, the digital economy, and the technology industry. IP laws are what tech companies rely on to protect and monetise their products, and they drive innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n Herd said there were still further steps to protect artists, including ensuring that licensing rules are applied to AI.<\/p>\n \u201cArtists deserve the right to decide how their work is used and to share in the value it creates,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cProtecting that agency is how we safeguard Australia\u2019s creative sovereignty and keep our culture strong.\u201d<\/p>\n Media companies also welcomed the decision.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Guardian Australia said it was a \u201cpositive step towards recognising that Australian copyrighted content deserves protection and payment\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAustralia\u2019s media, publishers and creatives all voiced opposition to TDM (text and data mining) exceptions noting that it would be a green light for large-scale theft of the work of Australian journalists and creatives and be contrary to Australia\u2019s national interests,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n They added the Guardian wants to see the development of a fair licensing regime with genuine value exchange.<\/p>\n Michael Miller, the News Corp Australasia executive chair, said the government had made the \u201ccorrect decision\u201d to rule out an exemption.<\/p>\n \u201cBy upholding the creator\u2019s right to control access, terms of use and payment, it reinforces that our copyright law works to ensure effective market outcomes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Albanese government has explicitly ruled out handing tech companies free rein to mine creative content to train…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,219,61,60,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-105246","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Briggs](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/8256.jpg\")
Briggs on AI replacing him: it doesn’t know ‘what a lounge room in Shepparton smells like’ \u2013 video<\/p>\n