International Media Coalition Warns Australia Against Weakening Copyright Laws for AI

A coalition of 63 international media organizations has issued an urgent warning to the Australian government regarding proposed measures that could weaken the nation's copyright laws.

In a letter delivered to senior Australian politicians, the signatories expressed concerns that potential changes, such as a model allowing creators to 'opt out' of having their work used to train artificial intelligence, could "drive a race to the bottom at the expense of creative industries." The coalition includes organizations like the News Media Association, of which the Daily Mail is a member.

The group raised alarms that changes to Australia's copyright laws might permit artificial intelligence companies to utilize copyrighted material for training their models without proper authorization or licensing. The letter argued that a government-floated opt-out mechanism could compel rights holders to depend on "burdensome registries" or "unworkable technical means."

The warning emphasized that in a borderless digital ecosystem, policies that undermine copyright protections could "reverberate worldwide." The signatories cautioned that "capitulating to dominant AI developers by adopting a statutory pool solution would erode this reputation and turn the principles of copyright law upside down." They urged Australia "not to abandon its leadership position by aiming instead to adopt permanently weaker protections in exchange for speculative AI investments."

The coalition also stated its concern that the rumored solutions could be "in clear violation of various international treaty obligations, including the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the WTO TRIPS Agreement, the WIPO Copyright Treaty, and the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement."

AI companies OpenAI and Anthropic have previously pressed the Australian government to clarify copyright rules for AI training data. OpenAI has indicated it would not invest in training AI on Australian soil if copyright laws are not relaxed.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signaled in July his government's intent to uphold Australia's copyright protections. He stated, "not everything produced in Australia is up for grabs." Albanese asserted that "Australian writers, musicians, artists and journalists must retain ownership and control of their work," adding, "No company should use Australian books, music, art or news to build or train AI without the artist’s control. Anything less is theft."

He acknowledged that "no country has got this right yet" and that "nowhere do artists or rights holders have sufficient control of their work, when it comes to AI training." Albanese concluded that "the best way to secure the strongest copyright protections for Australian artists is for Australia to be active and involved. To build the best possible solution for ourselves. And to preserve the creativity that is fundamental to who we are to our national identity and the journalism that is essential to our democratic society."