Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Copyright legislation in Australia
The rapid development of AI-driven communication and creation tools is outpacing Australian copyright legislation. While existing laws offer some guidance, the absence of explicit AI references introduces ambiguities relating to ownership, authorship, and liability.
Is my AI-generated work protected by copyright?
In Australia, copyright protection requires that the author a) has contributed “independent intellectual effort” and b) is human. “Independent intellectual effort” is exercising personal judgement and discretion in activities like research, analysis, evaluation, selection, arrangement and expression. Therefore, works created solely by AI are not eligible for copyright protection.
Can my work infringe on someone’s copyright if I use AI?
UOW users should adhere to the UOW IT Acceptable Use Policy, which states: Unauthorised copying or communication of copyright protected material violates the law and is contrary to the University’s standards of conduct and business practices. A yet-to-be-resolved issue relates to the compliance of the original materials used to train AI. Australian copyright law does not specifically address data mining or the use of works for machine learning. Other jurisdictions, such as the US, do have Fair Use exceptions that might allow for use of materials for model creation. However, if AI training used illegally copied materials, and your output can be linked to these, you risk receiving a takedown or infringement notice from the original copyright owner. Users should review the Terms and Conditions of any AI tool used.
Are there any copyright exceptions to using AI?
Even if your purposes are for research or study, there is no exception in Australian Copyright legislation that would allow you to upload material to an Artificial Intelligence tool that uses your uploaded data to build or refine its model, and which may be accessed by people other than yourself. This would include material from library databases such as journal article PDFs, or course materials, images, audio or video that you do not own the copyright to.