Creatives sound alarm on copyright as Pocock calls $50bn datacentre proposal ‘ultimate dirty deal’

Creatives are demanding fresh assurances from the Albanese government that it won’t water down copyright laws under a potential deal with tech giants to attract more than $50bn worth of datacentre investment in exchange for a $350m-a-year fund for artists. Guardian Australia has been told an industry proposal has been presented to cabinet that would grant AI companies special exemptions to mine creative content. In exchange, the companies would bankroll the artists’ fund and commit more than $50bn worth of investment in datacentres. The independent senator David Pocock said the proposal was the “ultimate dirty deal” as he demanded the government categorically rule it out. The government insisted it had no plans to weaken copyright protections. The potential adoption of a text and data mining exemption would represent a major reversal from the federal government, which last year ruled it out after criticism from artists, authors and media groups. Amid fears the government could capitulate to big tech, a delegation of creatives staged a press conference in parliament house on Wednesday to urge the government to hold the line. “The idea that copyright law should be watered down or chiselled away at to provide a freebie or a handout to gigantic multinational, multi-billion dollar companies to train their AI models makes absolutely no sense to me,” said Paul Dempsey, the lead of singer of Something for Kate. …