Photo Credit: Kylie Minogue by J.E.T. 603 / CC by 4.0
The global trade body ICMP warns that AI training may lead to the dilution of Australian copyright laws, effectively “legitimizing larceny.”
The International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP) has cautioned the Australian government against giving in to efforts from tech companies seeking to weaken copyright laws to accommodate artificial intelligence training. Already, AI has been trained on the works of well-known Australian artists, including Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave, without compensation or permission.
The ICMP says that “dozens of countries” have already been approached to dilute copyright laws, but Australia appears to be the only one seriously considering it. It’s a move that would “legitimize larceny,” according to ICMP Managing Director John Phelan.
“They’re trying to strong-arm Australian policymakers into ‘if you don’t do this, we won’t invest’,” said Phelan.
Creative organizations have long expressed concerns that the Australian government was being lobbied by global tech companies to weaken the country’s copyright laws to help train AI models without compensating the entertainment sectors. Now, the government recently revisited the matter, calling the current situation a stalemate.
AI models have already been training on copyrighted material in the United States without compensation for creators, but without changes to Australian copyright laws, the same companies have been withholding frontier AI models in the country.
In a joint letter to the prime minister, the inquiry’s labor chair, Jo Briskey, and its deputy chair, Senator Jonathon Duniam, recommended that the government re-examine current copyright law while ensuring creators retain control and receive compensation.
The ICMP is tracking how AI companies are making moves to convince countries to change their copyright laws to accommodate training. The AI industry largely claims that its models are not trained on Australian content due to copyright laws, but evidence to the contrary abounds, including the fact that Google’s Gemini can reproduce lyrics from Australian artists, including Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue.
Phelan stated that 62 countries had considered making legal changes, but none had acquiesced to AI companies’ demands. He cited an AI training dataset revealed over the summer that contains over 12 million songs scraped from YouTube, which includes hits from major Australian artists.
“There isn’t a single country among the other 61 (that) has introduced a new text and data mining exception for commercial purposes or reduced the idea of exclusive rights and copyright,” said Phelan. “The world is very much watching what Australia does.”
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