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Weeks before Scott Farquhar urged looser copyright laws to support AI, Canva’s Cliff Obrecht had argued the opposite, exposing early fault lines in the Tech Council.
“This may seem really esoteric, but it’s actually really important.”
That was Scott Farquhar’s opening gambit in July as he introduced a bold and polarising idea: that Australia should loosen copyright laws to encourage Big Tech to train and host AI models here.
Australia’s IP rules were a global outlier, he argued — a worst-of-both-worlds situation where copyright holders don’t profit, yet regulations prevent their work being used to inspire new AI innovations.
For that reason, the Tech Council of Australia (TCA) called on the attorney-general to revisit what constitutes “fair use” in the AI era. It would be wrong for a tech company to use Atlassian’s IP to compete against it, Farquhar told the ABC’s 7.30, but Atlassian’s IP contributing to “transformational” technology would be fair use.
“Fixing this one thing could unlock billions of dollars of foreign investment into Australia,” Farquhar said at the National Press Club — one weird trick to salvage the economy.
