Experts warn Australian AI copyright carve-out could breach constitution
Coalition senators, the recording industry and legal scholars say an opt-out scraping model could force Canberra to pay compensation to rights holders worldwide.
What to know
- Labor is finalising a broader AI reform package covering copyright, datacentres, online safety and energy, with an announcement expected soon.
- Anthropic has pushed for an opt-out scraping model; critics say this could count as a government acquisition of property under section 51 of the Australian constitution.
- Coalition senators and the recording industry warn this could expose Australia to compensation claims from rights holders worldwide.
- Constitutional expert Anne Twomey says the risk is real but depends entirely on how any legislation is drafted, and no bill has yet been published.
“If they go ahead with an opt-out model, it does raise a real question of whether the government is acquiring the intellectual property rights of others”
Ross Cadell, Nationals senator, AI committee member · Guardian Australia ↗ · Oct 29
Anne Twomey Constitutional law professor emerita, University of SydneyRoss Cadell Nationals senator, parliamentary AI committee memberMichaelia Cash Shadow attorney general
Anthony Albanese Prime Minister of Australia
Michelle Rowland Attorney generalAnthropic AI company lobbying on copyright policy
How it unfolded 2 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlespostscomments
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Legal commentator flags article's gap on High Court precedent
A legal academic posting on Mastodon notes the Guardian piece omits that prior intellectual-property "acquisition of property" cases have generally fared badly in the High Court of Australia, casting doubt on how strong the constitutional threat really is.
“This article does not really mention though that acquisition of property cases on IP have farely badly in the High Court of Australia…”
— drrimmer@aus.social -
Copyright was created initially for the crown to control what was printed, ie: censorship, then it became about publishers making money. Creators' rights were added as an after thought. When you look today at who makes money from copyright, it is almost completely publishers (in a wide sense) and large companies. This is what this fight is about…
2 more of the top 3 · 8 posts in this stretch
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Scraping copyrighted material from internet could ‘potentially’ amount to acquisition of property by government, Anne Twomey says https://www. theguardian.com/law/2026/oct/3 1/experts-warn-ai-copyright-changes-could-breach-australian-constitution-and-spark-huge-compensation-rights-case (This article does not really mention though that acquisition…
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The "expert" is a National party MP : “We could be liable for ‘just terms’ compensation for acquiring that property for every rights holder on Earth,” Ross Cadell, a Nationals senator, told Guardian Australia. This is total garbage. The constitution only requires just compensation for the acquisition of real property, not chattels or licences…
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Guardian reports constitutional risk in AI copyright opt-out plan
The Guardian reveals that Coalition senators, the recording industry and constitutional expert Anne Twomey have warned that letting AI firms scrape copyrighted material under an opt-out model, as proposed by Anthropic, could amount to a government acquisition of property requiring "just terms" compensation under section 51 of the constitution, ahead of a looming federal AI policy announcement.
“We could be liable for ‘just terms’ compensation for acquiring that property for every rights holder on Earth…”
— Ross Cadell
Also covered reported alongside — the timeline has no entry for these yet
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first by Guardian Media, 13d ago · also Guardian
and 1 smaller piece
What people are saying 5 voices from 2 sites · best of 8 · verbatim
- Nov 2
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Australian plan to allow # AI companies to scrape copyrighted material has some major legal hurdles: https://www. theguardian.com/law/2026/oct/3 1/experts-warn-ai-copyright-changes-could-breach-australian-constitution-and-spark-huge-compensation-rights-case # ArtificialIntelligence
- Oct 31
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I didn't realize Austrilia hated writers and authors this much https:// authorsguild.org/news/australi a-ai-training-statement/ # AI # FuckAI
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"The Australian government...would change copyright law to allow AI companies to use authors’ work, without a license, to build their models" AI Corps: We can't be profitable unless we can eat people! Aussie Gov: Let's make it legal for the monster to eat people!" https:// authorsguild.org/news/australi a-ai-training-statement/
- Oct 30
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It wasn't actually kinda, the music being pirated is an internet rumour mix up of people confusing a totally seperate anti-piracy commercial that had a similar case The type face used wasn't actually the licensed commercial one but a bootleg font based on it whuch is the funniest way to try and avoid directly stealing
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Heard that was a rumor and not true. Still wish my internet was as fast as that video though...