Country Press Australia (CPA) supports the Albanese Government’s decision to exclude AI companies from copyright exemptions but emphasizes the urgent need to enforce copyright laws to prevent AI platforms from exploiting regional journalism. CPA President Damian Morgan highlighted that the harm to regional news is already happening, as AI companies harvest, paraphrase, and redistribute local stories without directing revenue or acknowledgment to publishers, undermining their financial sustainability.
Regional publishers struggle with paywalls, yet AI scraping bypasses these protections, threatening the livelihoods of local journalists. Morgan warned that AI platforms are effectively replacing publishers by extracting content and retaining audiences, which diminishes the economic base for regional journalism. He urged that past policy failures, like Meta’s withdrawal from funding news, not be repeated. While Google remains engaged, Meta’s actions highlight the need for licensing and compensation for Australian news used by AI firms.
CPA calls for a national framework ensuring licensing covers both training data and output, includes regional publishers, and provides quick, low-cost enforcement options for small publishers. Morgan stressed that regional journalism is essential for democracy and warned that unchecked AI scraping risks its disappearance. He praised the government’s initial rejection of AI copyright exemptions but emphasized that licensing and enforcement are crucial to preserving regional media, referencing Australia’s successful regulation through the News Media Bargaining Code and urging an AI equivalent to prevent irreversible damage.
Source: Gunnedah Times
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