Copyright Agency has introduced an extension to its Annual Business Licence to allow staff in licensed businesses to use news media content in generative AI tool prompts. This extension, which follows consultation with news media publishers, does not apply to training, and does not allow capture of the content outside of the business, for example through an open system AI tool.

The Annual Business Licence is a blanket copyright licence granting participating organisations permission to internally copy (e.g. print, scan, and photocopy), store and share multiple digital, online and hard copy resources. Permission also extends to externally communicating and supplying Australian newspaper content via channels such as website, social media, meeting agendas and annual reports.

The conditions of this new extension include:

• Copying and sharing only within the licensed business, and the business must take steps to ensure material is not captured outside the workplace.
• Businesses may not use the licence to replace the purchase of an available subscription or product.
• The licence does not override prohibitions in the Copyright Act against circumventing technological protection measures or removing rights management information.

The licence extension will not allow for works to be used in AI training, to compile datasets for use in training, fine-tuning, augmenting or validating AI tools, text and data mining, or creating commercial products. 

Copyright Agency is consulting with other members, including authors and publishers, about the further expansion of the Annual Business Licence to allow the use of other content, including books and journals, with generative AI tools.

Copyright Agency members can exclude their works from the Annual Business Licence, if they wish. Find out more about the licence and participation at the Copyright Agency website.

The ASA supports appropriate licensing to replace the uncontrolled, unlicensed, unremunerated use of authors’ and illustrators’ work in generative AI models. Creators should have the right to say yes or no to AI licensing arrangements, to impose limits on licences, and to be compensated fairly if they opt in.