‘A Vast Landgrab’: ICMP Weighs-In on Big AI’s Australian Copyright Battleground (EXCLUSIVE)
Categoria: Musica
"We need to refuse OpenAI, Anthropic and Big Tech’s asks and instead focus on enforcement," Phelan explains.
Por Billboard | 05/11/2026
SYDNEY, Australia — As Australia’s leadership considers rewrites to the nation’s copyright laws that would allow for AI training, the land down under finds itself front and center in the creative industries’ most pressing issue. It’s a fast-moving target. OpenAI, Anthropic and others have tirelessly lobbied the federal government for changes in the copyright act that would enable the tech companies to train AI models in these parts. Should big AI get the win, the music industry has warned, a potential doomsday scenario could unfold for the arts. “Done the way that Big AI is proposing,” ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd remarked in October , “it would devastate the music industry and make Australia a pariah for rights holders globally.” Earlier, in July , prime minister Anthony Albanese had given assurances that tech and AI companies couldn’t use copyright-protected works including consent, credit and compensation, broadly in with the message from the music community. A kind of smackdown was delivered Oct. 13, however, when Jo Briskey and Jono Duniam, co-chairs of the joint parliamentary committee for AI, suggested that Australia’s existing copyright law wasn’t up the scratch and that, without fresh changes, creators would miss out in the AI age. Not only was the statement “wrong,” Herd said at the time, but “it ignores substantial evidence provided to the Committee. Australian copyright law gives creators control. It is the only thing standing between major American AI companies and unchecked access to the world’s content right here from Australia.” In the digital era, implores the labels association and other creative industry trade bodies, the world’s music, books, journalism, films, photographs and other copyright material published online are at risk under the proposals. The International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP) agrees with the assessment . “This is a vast landgrab,” explains John Phelan , director general of the Brussels-based ICMP, which represents 90% of the world’s commercially released music and whose members include Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, BMG, Kobalt, Reservoir and Concord Music Publishing, alongside thousands of other indie publishers. “We say they must play by the same Australian and international laws as all other AI companies who respect the rules and so our industry licenses.” Earlier in 2026, APRA AMCOS hosted the CISAC board of directors in Sydney. AI was at the top of the agenda . Billboard recently caught up with Phelan for an update on an issue whose “implications are global.” Courtesy Photo Billboard: Just how concerned should the international music community be, and why should the situation in Australia — of all places — deserve our attention? John Phelan : What’s on the table is a plan, cooked as much in Silicon Valley as Sydney, to enable tech and AI companies to utilize the world’s digital music for ingestion and tra