Photo by Robert Bye on Unsplash.
Australian creatives have called on the Albanese government to uphold existing copyright laws and enforce repercussions for the use of unauthorised content.
The campaign comes in response to recent reports that Australian songs were allegedly used to train artificial intelligence models without artists consent.
Headed by APRA AMCOS, a music rights management organisation representing songwriters, composers, and music publishers in Australia and New Zealand, the creatives have traveled to Parliament house to talk to Hon Tony Burke, minister for the Arts, and have published an open letter with more than 7,000 signatures.
“We are Australia’s songwriters, recording artists, authors, journalists, photographers, producers, visual artists, composers, screenwriters, playwrights and creative industry businesses,” read the letter.
“We make the songs that end up on every streaming platform, the photographs that document our lives, the books and scripts and artworks that define our culture, the TV and film productions that light up our screens, and the stories that uncover and tell the truth about our nation.
“Our work is the fuel that powers the AI economy. Without it there are no large language models, no AI products of any kind. All of it has been fed into AI systems without asking us and without paying us.
“The companies now valued in the hundreds of billions want a hand-out, a free-for-all for our labour and intellectual property.
“We call on the Australian Government to commit to the future of creativity in this country and not to trade it away.
“Undermining the legal protections that make these careers would be an economic decision with consequences felt for decades.
“The next National Cultural Policy is an opportunity to build a global creative powerhouse.
“That future can only be built on the foundation that gives creators the economic security to keep making work.
“Asking Australian creators to quietly absorb the legal liability of tech companies before they float on the stock market, it would be the permanent transfer of Australian stories to the wealthiest corporations in human history.
“Undermine the rights that make creative careers possible and you don’t just hurt the current generation of artists. You gut the pipeline for the generations that come."
Those who have signed the letter include Australian Music Publishers Association Limited, Australian Publishers Association, National Association For The Visual Arts, Australian Society of Authors, Screenrights, Screen Producers Australia, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music Office, Copyright Agency, Australian Music Center and others.
Dean Ormston, CEO at APRA AMCOS, said in a statement that AI companies were looking for a hand out.
"Midnight Oil. Sia. Crowded House. Lorde. Yothu Yindi,” he said.
“These are not bargaining chips, they are the life's work of Australian and New Zealand songwriters.
"Major tech platforms have not come to the table. Not once. Instead they have lobbied governments, circulated policy papers, and proposed solutions designed to extinguish any obligation to pay.
“The only path forward is a genuine licensing conversation with the people whose work they have been using. We are ready. We have always been ready. The question is whether they are.”
Those that gathered at Parliament House included William Barton, Paul Dempsey, Warren H. Williams, Anna Funder, Mahalia Barnes, John Collins, Andy Griffiths, KLP, Francois Tetaz, Mark Seymour, Holly Rankin and others.
Leah Flanagan, APRA AMCOS director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander programs and strategy, said the infringement was culturally unacceptable.
“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists have not given permission for their work to be used to train these AI datasets," said Flanagan.
“Many of these recordings carry cultural knowledge, language and connection to Country. Their use without consent is not acceptable, these are not just recordings, they are cultural expressions governed by protocols as well as copyright.
“In some cases, this is material that has never been available for commercial use by anyone, on any terms.
“Any response to AI and copyright must address Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property specifically and must be developed with First Nations communities at the centre.”
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