In recent years, copyright departments in governments around the world have been preoccupied with AI’s effects on copyright industries and, more recently, copyright law challenges created for AI industries. What about ‘Down Under’? Which copyright issues has the Australian government been grappling with? Over the last few years, the Australian government has been observing public…

Recently, the German photographer Boris Eldagsen won a prestigious Sony World Photography Awards competition. After the winner was announced, the photographer disclosed that the image he submitted to the photography competition was generated through the use of an AI system and refused to accept the award. This has provoked a public discussion on whether AI…

Introduction By introducing the press publishers’ right in art. 15 of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (CDSM), the EU legislator wanted to aid press publishers in licensing and enforcing their rights in press publications. The hope was that once press publishers are recognized as rightsholders in the EU legislation, their legal…

Debate on AI and IP continues Copyright and Artificial Intelligence (AI) or, more specifically, Machine Learning (ML) has become a hotly debated topic. It has attracted attention not only among academics but also increasingly among policy makers. The US government ran a consultation on AI and IP a few years ago. The UK government has…

In July this year, the Federal Court of Australia handed down a decision in Stephen L. Thaler [2021] APO 5, which allowed listing AI system DABUS as an inventor in a patent application. It is interesting to explore what implications this decision could have in the field of copyright. About the DABUS decision The DABUS case refers…

As reported in a previous blog post, the Australian government has been intensively negotiating the Australian version of the press publishers’ right, the News Media Bargaining Code. The legislation was initially proposed in July 2020 and, following tough negotiations with industry stakeholders, the slightly amended News Media Bargaining Code was eventually passed by the Australian…

While EU Member States are implementing the newly introduced press publishers’ right into their national laws, Australia is about to introduce its own version of the right. On 31 July 2020, the Australian government announced the Treasury Laws Amendment (News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code) Bill 2020 (draft News Media Bargaining Code). While the…

On 24 April 2020, the Federal Court of Australia handed down a decision in the case Boomerang Investments Pty Ltd v Padgett (Liability) [2020] FCA 535 which concerned the copying of substantial parts of the iconic Australian pop-hit classic ‘Love is in the air’ by the US band, Glass Candy, and by the French airline…

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly pervading our lives. AI-based face recognition technology has been employed in surveillance and policing. In medicine, AI is already diagnosing various diseases, including skin cancer. Courts have been using AI solutions to determine sentences, while hiring companies use AI to attract applicants and to predict a candidate’s fit. When shopping…

In Anglosphere nations, the rights of creators are governed almost entirely by their contracts with investors. The US and Canada have the only (small) exceptions: US law entitles creators to terminate (most) agreements after 35 years; in Canada, rights revert automatically to heirs 25 years after the author’s death. Outside those cases, and throughout the…