MEDIA RELEASE - Creative workers reject proposed Text and Data Mining (TDM) exceptions for Artificial Intelligence
Australian creative workers and their royalty collecting societies expressed disappointment at the Productivity Commission’s advocacy for a text and data mining (TDM) exception, a move that would retroactively legalise the theft of Australia’s creative workers’ intellectual property, voices, images, and work, by foreign multi-nationals.
The interim report “Harnessing data and digital technology” seeks feedback on a possible “TDM exception” to the Copyright Act, which creative workers say could devastate the local creative industries and legitimise the widespread flouting of Australian law that has already taken place. It is unclear if the Commission will go further in recommending that all Australians lose the right to own and protect their personal and private data, including their face and voice, to artificial intelligence (AI) models.
Tech companies operating Large Language Models (LLMs) have conceded that AI models rely on copyrighted works that are taken without consent or payment, and Australian workers have already seen their works stolen, including some of Australia’s most iconic plays and books. At a Senate inquiry last year, big tech companies repeatedly dodged questions about the provenance of work used in their AI models, and faced sustained questioning about the use of Australian voices, books and films in their models.
The joint submission representing cinematographers, screen directors, screen and live performance designers, screen composers, screen editors and voice actors makes it clear that any TDM exception is not acceptable to creative workers (see here).
This is endorsed by the following industry guilds and collecting societies:
Australian Writers Guild (AWG)
Australian Writers Guild Authorship Collecting Society (AWGACS)
Australian Cinematographers’ Society (ACS)
Australian Directors’ Guild (ADG)
Australian Screen Directors Authorship Collecting Society (ASDACS)
Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC)
Australian Screen Sound Guild (ASSG)
Australian Production Design Guild (APDG)
Australian Screen Editors’ Guild (ASE)
and the Australian Association of Voice Actors (AAVA)