Labor accused of throwing creatives ‘under the bus’ with proposal to ease copyright protections for AI giants
The Australian Labor government is reportedly weighing a plan that would give AI companies default access to copyrighted creative works, framed as a compromise with US tech firms. The move emerged as OpenAI officials met with government ministers, arguing that current Australian copyright law blocks them from training AI models in the country.
Why this matters: Australian writers, artists, and musicians did not agree to have their work fed into AI models. If the government changes the default to opt-out, most creators will lose control simply because they did not know to act. That is a significant shift of power, dressed up as a compromise. The real negotiation here is not between Labor and OpenAI. It is between people who make things and a government deciding how much their work is worth protecting.
Who should care: Cybersecurity · Privacy officers · Administrators · General readers · AI governance · Policy
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