The International Confederation of Music Publishers, which speaks for the three major companies and thousands of independents across the world, says AI systems have already been trained on Australian songs without payment. It adds that technology firms are leaning on Canberra to loosen copyright law in their favour. Managing director John Phelan made the case to Guardian Australia on 19 October.
As proof, the group handed the paper exclusive material showing that Google's Gemini could reproduce lyrics by Kylie Minogue, G-Flip and Nick Cave. Phelan also pointed to a dataset The Atlantic reported on in June, which held more than 12 million songs taken from YouTube, Minogue, Cave and Hilltop Hoods among them.
“They’re trying to strong-arm Australian policymakers into ‘if you don’t do this, we won’t invest’.”
John Phelan, managing director, ICMP, to Guardian Australia · theguardian.com ↗
Phelan says 62 countries have looked at changing their rules and none of the other 61 has brought in a commercial exception for text and data mining or cut exclusive rights. In his view, companies squeezed by costs and US litigation see legislation as a way to operate without licences, and they are tying investment to law changes. A statutory scheme or government-brokered deal that interferes with how Australian industries contract worldwide would appal the global industry, the ICMP warns.
The AI side has put its own case to the parliamentary committee. Anthropic's special envoy Jeffrey Bleich said the company is not dictating terms, but that licensing everything is impossible and that training could be unlawful under current Australian law without licences. OpenAI's Adam Cohen said US fair use protects new technology, and pointed to the company's deals with News Corp and the Guardian.
The committee's chairs, Labor's Jo Briskey and the Liberals' Jonathon Duniam, have written to the prime minister recommending the government examine current copyright settings while keeping creators in control and paid. Members describe a stalemate: models already train on copyrighted works in the US, and firms are holding back frontier models from Australia without law changes. Independent senator David Pocock questioned whether the position was predetermined after staffer edits showed in the letter; Briskey denies it.
In July, Anthony Albanese said it would be theft if artists lost control over whether their work trains AI and what they are paid. No decision date is named, and the government's reply to the committee's letter is pending.