Media and creative workers call for new laws to enforce remuneration rights amid AI boom

The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance is calling on the Federal Government to urgently reform copyright law to introduce payment rights and protections for creators as AI rapidly erodes livelihoods.

MEAA has launched a bid for Equitable Remuneration (ER) – an inalienable right that ensures original creators receive payment whenever their work is broadcast or publicly communicated – to be legislated in Australia and extended to digital and AI uses.

The principle of ER, which operates successfully overseas, has the potential – alongside other provisions including effective licensing, watermarking and tracking – to protect jobs and bolster the incomes of creators by tens of thousands a year.

MEAA Chief Executive Erin Madeley said ER offered a once-in-a-generation chance to update Australian copyright laws, protect creators and creative industries, and ensure the benefits of AI are shared with all Australians – not just major corporations and technology giants.

“Massive datasets of music, films, journalism, books and voices are being scraped to train commercial AI systems, often without consent, credit or payment to the workers who made them,” Ms Madeley said.

“This is driving job losses, undercutting incomes and hollowing out Australia’s creative and media industries.”

Ms Madeley said Australia needed to catch up with the rest of the world and guarantee creators a share of the income generated when their work is reproduced. Crucially, we need to adopt the same principle to protect and compensate workers when AI companies use their work to train AI models.

“Under current law, creators are often locked into one-off fees while platforms, AI companies and intermediaries capture ongoing profits,” she said.

“Equitable Remuneration is a way to close loopholes that allow income to be contracted away, ensuring payment flows to the people who made the work.”

“The bottom line is ER delivers real money to the creators of the work that underpin extremely profitable industries,” Ms Madeley said.

“If governments don’t act now, we risk losing the creative workforce that supports our culture and democracy.

“It’s time for tech companies to pay up, and introducing ER into copyright law, alongside effective licensing, watermarking and tracking will ensure that happens.”

Media inquiries:

Rebecca 0411 790 304