ARIA Boss Annabelle Herd Warns Australia Against Giving AI Giants a ‘Free Ride’

ARIA and PPCA CEO Annabelle Herd has warned against weakening Australia’s copyright protections to attract major artificial intelligence companies, arguing the move could undermine licensing markets for music and other creative works.

Appearing before the Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence this week, Herd pushed back against proposals that would make it easier for companies including OpenAI and Anthropic to train AI models on copyright-protected material in Australia.

The debate over how Australian copyright law should apply to generative AI has become an increasingly significant issue for the local creative industries, with rights holders seeking protections and licensing arrangements for material used to train AI systems, while technology companies have argued existing frameworks can create barriers to AI development.

Representing ARIA and PPCA, Herd argued Australia should not rewrite its copyright framework to accommodate AI companies seeking to establish or expand training operations locally. 

“OpenAI and Anthropic want the Australian Government to sign up to a deal to train their frontier AI agents here on the proviso that they don’t have to abide by our copyright laws. Their reason? The world’s richest and most advanced companies say it would be too costly and complex to work with rights holders,” Herd said.

“This concept that the status quo isn’t working is being used as an argument by AI companies to change our copyright law. You don’t address a systemic problem of mass piracy by changing the law to legalise that piracy on an ongoing basis.”

She said Australia’s existing copyright system already provides a clear framework for companies wanting to use protected material, arguing AI developers should instead negotiate licences with rights holders.

“In Australia, we have a very clear system where, if you can’t rely on a fair dealing exception, you can’t copy. The law is very certain. It is very simple for these companies to come to us and say, ‘We’d like to license your content.’ They should come to the negotiating table, not to the Prime Minister’s office,” she continued.

“ARIA and PPCA are not against these companies doing their frontier training in Australia. We understand why that is beneficial, but it should happen on our terms, not theirs. There is nothing less sovereign than rewriting our laws to suit foreign company commercial interests.

“Done the way that Big AI is proposing, it would devastate the music industry and make Australia a pariah for rights holders globally.”

ARIA and PPCA also pointed to the principle of national treatment, under which overseas works receive copyright protection in Australia in the same way Australian works are protected internationally. The organisations argue that means any compensation model introduced alongside broader AI training rights could not simply funnel money to Australian creators, but would also need to account for overseas rights holders.

Herd further suggested any Australian decision could have consequences beyond the local market, particularly amid ongoing copyright litigation involving AI companies in the United States.

“To me, this seems to be a deliberate strategy by the AI companies. They’re open in saying they won’t license here because it could impact their US lawsuits. But the converse is also true. If we go down a path and declare that there’s no licensing market – Australia deciding to upend the global licensing market and say there isn’t one – then that will assist them in their US lawsuits and I’m not sure why that’s in Australia’s interests,” she said.

She also rejected the suggestion that licensing the enormous volumes of music potentially used for AI training would be unworkable. “The global music industry already has efficient licensing systems capable of licensing 90 per cent of the world’s sound recordings through four global deals: one with each major label and one with Merlin, representing independent labels.

“There is clearly no market failure, just two foreign companies, each valued at over U$1 trillion, asking Government for a free ride.”