Joint statement from AMPAL, APRA AMCOS, ARIA PPCA, Australian Publishers Association,Australian Society of Authors, Australian Writers’ Guild, AWG Authorship Collecting Society, Copyright Agency, National Association for the Visual Arts and Screenrights
Australian creator groups today welcomed the passage of the Copyright Amendment Bill, confirming that Australia’s world-leading copyright licensing framework remains modern, balanced and fit for purpose.
The Bill delivers two important reforms. The introduction of Australia’s first orphan works scheme provides certainty with materials where copyright owners cannot be identified or located, benefiting researchers, educators, cultural institutions and the broader community. And the clarification that existing exceptions for the use of copyright material in classrooms apply equally in online settings reflects the reality of modern teaching. Both reforms have the support of creator groups. Both were the product of years of careful consultation and passed as intended.
Creator groups thank the government, the opposition and the Attorney-General’s Department for the collaborative and considered way in which this legislation was developed. The process was a model of how copyright reform should work, striking a balance between the rights of creators and the needs of content users, and doing so through genuine engagement with all stakeholders. That partnership is something creator groups are committed to continuing.
Australia’s world-leading education licensing scheme is comprehensive by design and covers everything teachers and students need including recorded lessons, distance education, online delivery and content accessed by students wherever they are. The amendments proposed by the education lobby would have introduced unnecessary complexity where none currently exists and would have been used to justify reducing the fair compensation paid to creators at the next licence negotiation. That is the established pattern of every previous attempt to replace licensing with exceptions.
For just under $30 per student per year, every student in every Australian school has access to everything ever created. Every book ever written, virtually every song ever recorded, every image ever published, every article, every poem, every illustration, every play, every documentary or film ever made and every screenplay. Teachers can copy it, share it and stream it in any classroom, in any format, online or in person, without seeking permission and without paying a cent beyond that flat annual fee.
The education sector spends more on cleaning schools than it pays to access the entirety of human creative output. This is a scheme that works for students, for teachers and for creators. It is the product of decades of good faith negotiation and it should be protected, not eroded.
Today’s outcome is welcome. However, creator groups remain alert to the broader campaign now underway. The same lobby that sought amendments to this Bill has also argued, in submissions to the Senate Adopting AI inquiry, that Australia’s copyright framework is a barrier to AI development and should be weakened accordingly, in perfect step with the position of multinational technology companies. The current licensing arrangements already clearly allow schools to use digital and AI technologies in teaching without copyright infringement.
The Australian Government has reiterated many times that Australian AI development using other people’s content must be done in compliance with Australia’s current laws, which include licensing arrangements. That must be the case for so-called ‘non-commercial’ development and activities, as well as commercial. An exception would deny that payment to creators entirely.
Australian creators stand ready to work in genuine partnership with the education sector, with government, and with anyone committed to ensuring that Australia’s copyright framework remains modern, fair and fit for purpose. At a time when creators’ rights and livelihoods are under threat from so many directions, the integrity of that framework has never mattered more. What we will not accept is the steady, incremental dismantling of the framework that makes Australian creative life possible.
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