On October 27, the Australian Government announced it would not move forward with proposals to adopt Text and Data Mining exceptions in Australian copyright law. The announcement, published by the attorney general, noted that “the Government stands behind Australia’s creative industries and, by ruling out a Text and Data Mining Exception, is providing certainty to Australian creators.”
The announcement is a major win, informed by pushback from publishers and the creative industries following the Productivity Commission’s earlier consultation on their interim report that considered a TDM exception to incentivize AI development in Australia.
The Alliance’s comments to the Commission provided background on how the U.S. copyright system deals with AI issues and corrected misconceptions regarding the assumed benefits of TDM exceptions. The comments also cautioned that adopting a TDM exception would move Australia further away from the United States. Read the full comments here.
The Alliance will monitor subsequent development in Australia on potential copyright updates.
