Peter Garrett Backs Australian Industry Body’s Push Against AI Exemptions

APRA AMCOS, Australia’s leading music rights management organization, has publicly denounced the proposed text and data mining exemption to Australia’s Copyright Act.

The background:

• The Australian government's Productivity Commission has published a 116-page interim report identifying priority reforms and actionable recommendations around data and digital technology in the country.

• The report reveals a preference for weakening copyright protections to benefit AI platforms.

• APRA AMCOS claims this could “devastate Australia’s $9 billion music industry” and warns it would “legitimize digital piracy under guise of productivity.”

• APRA Chair Jenny Morris said: “They’re laying the groundwork to legitimize what they themselves acknowledge is already widespread theft.”

• She adds: “We’ve witnessed the wholesale ingestion of Australian works by AI companies in the US, where over 30 court cases are currently underway challenging this practice.”

• The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music Office (NATSIMO) has also flagged its concern over the “digital theft” of Indigenous cultural and intellectual property “that exists in our songs and music.”

• The interim report is framed as seeking “feedback” on the options it proposes.

Artist feedback:

• APRA AMCOS’s stance has been echoed by Australian artists such as Missy Higgins, Julian Hamilton (The Presets) and Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett.

What they said:

• Peter Garrett, speaking with The Australian newspaper: “The rampant opportunism of big tech aiming to pillage other people’s work for their own profit is galling and shameful. They can try to call it ‘innovation’ but another word for it is ‘theft.’ The federal government needs to urgently strengthen copyright laws to help preserve cultural sovereignty and our valuable intellectual property in the face of powerful corporate forces who want to strip mine it and pay nothing.”