Peak Australian music bodies APRA AMCOS and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music Office (NATSIMO) have slammed a report released by the Australian Government’s Productivity Commission that suggests copyright exemptions for artificial intelligence.

The Productivity Commission’s 116-page interim report proposes introducing a text and data mining exception to the Copyright Act, which the statement says shows “a clear preference for weakening copyright protections to benefit AI platforms and devastate Australia’s $9 billion music industry”.

Photo © Jacinta Keefe

“The Commission may couch this as policy exploration, but their direction is clear,” said APRA Chair Jenny Morris. “They’re laying the groundwork to legitimise what they themselves acknowledge is already widespread theft. 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 Productivity Commission report warns against the over-regulation of AI, which, it says, could throttle an estimated $116 billion in revenue to the Australian economy across the next 10 years. APRA AMCOS and NATSIMO argue the report proposes “legal cover for existing unauthorised practices” of...