Copyright is not the enemy of AI innovation
We should embrace AI with confidence, not by stripping away the rights that underpin Australia’s creative industries and innovation economy.
The argument that AI needs weaker copyright laws to succeed is fundamentally flawed. In fact, I argue the opposite: strong intellectual property rights are a core reason innovative economies exist at all.
December 2, 1997. I was 13 and at Festival Hall for my first concert. I was there to see The Offspring on their Ixnay on the Hombre world tour, but it was the support band, The Living End, that changed my life that night.
Until then, I hadn’t given much thought to where music came from or who made it. I simply knew I loved it. Watching three young Australians command the stage, I realised music wasn’t something that appeared out of thin air. It was created by real people.
The Living End would go on to sell more than a million records, tour the world and, just last month, be inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. That career wasn’t built on talent alone. It was also built on a system that allows creators to own, protect and monetise their work: copyright.
