Australia backs AI licensing deals
Australian policymakers are encouraging licensing deals between tech firms and creative industries, arguing existing copyright laws can handle AI‑generated content and that rights holders are 'ready to do AI deals' under current rules. The push frames licensing as the immediate fix to balance creative industry revenue with AI development. (afr.com)
The Productivity Commission’s final report recommended the Australian Government monitor AI licensing markets and copyright outcomes for three years before considering economy‑wide exceptions. (assets.pc.gov.au) Attorney‑General Michelle Rowland publicly ruled out creating a statutory text‑and‑data‑mining (TDM) exception on 26 October 2025 and convened the Copyright and AI Reference Group (CAIRG) for a two‑day review on 27–28 October to examine licensing pathways. (abc.net.au) (minterellison.com) Music rights body APRA AMCOS pressed for active licensing negotiations, saying the three‑year monitoring window should be used to catalyse real deals and to track impacts on royalty incomes. (apraamcos.com.au) Global precedents cited by Australian stakeholders include News Corp’s multi‑year content partnership with OpenAI and Getty Images’ multi‑year licensing deal with Perplexity, which industry lawyers say demonstrate commercial licensing models for high‑value content. (openai.com) (techcrunch.com) Legal advisers and the Commission warned licensing the open web at scale is commercially unfeasible today because of high transaction costs and the difficulty of identifying millions of rightsholders, a reality that has pushed much model training offshore. (ashurst.com) (regulations.ai) CAIRG’s agenda lists three specific options for the government to consider: voluntary licences, a new collective statutory licensing framework, or enforcement reforms such as a small‑claims forum to speed low‑value copyright disputes. (minterellison.com)
