Australia Considers Adding Fair Use Provisions to Copyright Laws
August 21, 2018
Australia’s existing copyright laws are too strict to allow for AI innovation, according to two of the most prominent companies in the field. Computerworld reports, “New Copyright Rules Needed for AI Era Argue Google, Microsoft.” The news comes as that nation prepares to reform those laws, which currently lack the sort of “fair use” provisions found in other countries. In March, the government issued a discussion paper asking for input on incorporating such provisions. Reporter Rohan Pearce tells us:
“The ‘extent to which AI will be able to be developed in Australia is in doubt’ because of the nation’s copyright regime, according to Google’s response to the discussion paper. AI depends ‘not only on having large sets of data and information to analyse, but also on making copies of those data sets as part of the process of training the algorithms,’ Google argued. ‘In many cases these data sets include material protected by copyright. This can pose significant barriers to the development of AI in countries like Australia which have only inflexible and prescriptive exceptions in their copyright laws.’ …
We noted:
“Microsoft in its submission argued that Australia should introduce an exception explicitly permitting text and data mining (TDM) of copyright works. The tech company said that it would support either an express exception for text and data mining or a broader fair use provision. ‘There is very little connection between copyright and TDM, just as copyright has never controlled how people read books and do research,’ Microsoft argued. ‘With TDM, it may be necessary to make copies of information to train the artificial intelligence and allow it to analyze this material to look for patterns, relationships, and insights. These copies are not read by humans, nor are they consumed or redistributed for their creative expression, so they don’t substitute for the original articles or subscriptions.’
That is an interesting point. Pearce notes that an overhaul is being proposed as a way to boost Australia’s digital economy, currently projected to be worth $139 billion by 2020. Both the country’s Productivity Commission and the Australian Law Reform Commission support the introduction of fair use provisions.
Cynthia Murrell, August 21, 2018
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