The ASA welcomes the Albanese government’s decision to rule out a Text and Data Mining (TDM) exception to Australian copyright law, which would have allowed for AI training on authors’ and illustrators’ work, without permission or payment.

ASA CEO, Lucy Hayward, says, ‘We thank the Attorney-General for this crucial decision and commitment to stand behind the creative industries and protect the rights of authors and illustrators. This represents a clear message from government that creators should be paid for their work. 

‘It’s also an important acknowledgement of the value of Australian stories and storytellers, and a vital first step in redressing the harm that has been caused by what has been called “the greatest act of copyright theft in history.”

‘The next steps are to ensure that Australian authors and illustrators are compensated for the theft of their work to train large language models, and that AI developers seek permission to use copyright work into the future through established licensing pathways.’

The ASA has called for a mandatory Code of Conduct, which, as a condition of doing business in Australia, would require AI developers to:

• be transparent about the copyright work they use to train their generative AI tools
• negotiate permission for copyright work, through direct and/or collective voluntary licensing
• compensate Australian creators on an ongoing basis for their work that has already been ingested to train models offshore, and for which consent was not sought
• comply with Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property protocols.

‘This is a watershed moment. Upholding copyright protections is a strong step towards setting a world-leading ethical and sustainable standard for AI development,’ Hayward says.

The ASA welcomes the recommencement of the Copyright and AI Reference Group (CAIRG) and looks forward to consulting further with the Attorney-General’s Department on these issues.

The ASA thanks all the authors and illustrators who contributed to our campaign to push back on the proposed copyright exception, including Anna Funder, Tom Keneally, Caroline Overington, Sally Rippin, and Professor Toby Walsh, and every single creator who shared the news with their networks, wrote to their MPs, and loudly backed our sector. Nothing we do is ever possible without you.