Dangers lurk beneath Productivity Commission’s prose

Australia’s copyright laws are the envy of countries the world over, and our content-rich creative industries are stronger for it.

The dull, safe prose of the Productivity Commission’s interim report masks a potentially catastrophic threat to the cultural sovereignty of Australia.

By flagging the possibility of diluting copyright laws – perhaps the most important economic safeguard in the arsenal of Australian content creators – to benefit AI tech companies, the financially focused boffins at the PC have not only failed to keep the wolves from the door, but have invited them in for a sit-down three-course meal, with dessert thrown in.

If news media outlets, authors and their book publishers, musicians and a raft of other professions lose control of what they have created, the consequences would be profound.

The PC report floats the idea of a “text and data mining exception” in relation to copyright law, a deliberately opaque way of suggesting that the requirement to obtain permission for use from the copyright holder could be abandoned to allow improved training of AI models.

“Currently, there is no exception that covers AI model training per se,” the report says. “However, depending on the case, a different exception could apply. For example, AI models built as part of research could fall within the scope of the ‘research or study’ exception.”

It’s carefully coded language, of course, but the implication is clear: the PC thinks there could be an economic upside to unshackling our copyright laws to favour Big Tech, and as such, it’s an idea worth thinking about.

But the truth – largely absent from this report – is that once AI models are given the green light to hoover up anything and everything, the copyright owners will forever lose control of what was once theirs. Ownership, and the capacity to profit from their own work, would effectively cease. Violations of any “exceptions” to the use of copyrighted material will be almost impossible to prove.

“It is the PC’s view that the copyright issues posed by AI can also similarly be resolved through adapting existing copyright law frameworks rather than introducing AI-specific regulation,” the report offers.

And how, exactly?

The PC suggests policy measures to better facilitate the licensing of copyrighted materials, such as through collecting societies, or amending the Copyright Act to include a “fair dealing exception” covering text and data mining.

It sounds like window-dressing, because it is. Neither option would give copyright holders any assurance that the cards are stacked in their favour.

Australia’s copyright laws are the envy of countries the world over, and our content-rich creative industries are stronger for it. The Albanese government should ensure they stay that way.