Broadly many of Australia’s existing laws and regulatory frameworks relating to intellectual property and copyright are adequate when it comes to AI, but the enforcement pathways and regulations that ensure adherence need to be strengthened so that smaller rights holders can engage.
Where AI companies use copyright-protected Australian media content, there should be a clear pathway for licensing and remuneration. This needs to address both training of AI and output/Retrieval Augmented Grounding (RAG). There should also be meaningful and technically effective mechanisms to opt out of the use of their content.
LINA supports efforts to establish a legislatory backstop that provides a voluntary pathway for news publishers to collectively license their content. Remuneration for content should not depend on a publisher’s ability to negotiate, or be calculated solely based on volume and scale of content reach.
Transparency requirements must be strengthened so that the obligation is moved to AI developers to ensure publishers are aware that their content has been used, and enforceable by a regulator rather than just the copyright owner. This includes requiring prominent attribution and link to source articles on licenses covering output-stage use.
The Government must maintain the decision not to introduce a text and data mining exemption, and ensure no exceptions under alternative wording allow for a loophole which would give AI developers free access to Australian publishers’ content.
