How Australia’s creative industries defeated the tech giants on AI copyright
Nicholas Pickard is executive director of public affairs and government relations at APRA AMCOS, representing 128,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers across Australasia. Here, he outlines how the country’s creative industries defeated the interloping tech giants – and why it matters for other APAC industries facing similar platform pressure.
Nicholas Pickard
In August, something remarkable happened on Melbourne talkback radio. Caller after caller phoned in—not about the housing crisis or cost of living, but about copyright law. Specifically, about whether AI companies should be allowed to use Australian creative works without permission or payment.
For anyone who works in government relations or corporate affairs, this moment represented the gold standard: a complex regulatory debate had become public conversation generating real political pressure.
Last month, Attorney-General Michelle Rowland ruled out copyright exceptions for AI training, delivering a significant policy win for creators and dealing a substantial defeat to Meta, Google and Amazon. More importantly for corporate affairs professionals across Asia-Pacific, it demonstrates how sophisticated stakeholder coordination can defeat even the most well-resourced corporate lobbying—a lesson that matters as the region faces unprecedented platform pressure on data governance, environmental standards and copyright frameworks.
