Authors around the world face a significant threat from planned legislation in Australia. We have sent a letter to the Australian Government, and you can add your name to a short public statement on the topic.

The Australian government is reportedly planning to introduce legislation that would change copyright law, making it easier for AI companies to use authors’ work, without a licence, to build their models. This would apply to authors from anywhere in the world: it would be legal for your work to be exploited by AI companies, if they conducted that exploitation on Australian soil. (The Australian government plans to let people opt out of their work being used, but opt-outs of this nature are unworkable and unfair on authors, and we believe that most people will miss the chance to opt out.)

We are also concerned that, if the Australian legislation goes through, the UK government may seek to do something similar.

Alongside a number of other organisations in the creative industries, we are helping organise a public statement condemning this planned legislation. It reads as follows:

The Australian government must not legalise the theft of the work of the world’s creators on their soil.

Our work must only be used to train AI models in Australia with our explicit permission.

This statement will be published online, along with a list of signatories.

To put your name to it, fill in your name and email, and we will do the rest (email addresses will not be published)