Australia’s ABC to AI Companies: Don’t Rewrite Copyright Law — Just Pay for the Content

Tested Intelligence — October 6, 2026

The bottom line: Australia’s national broadcaster told a parliamentary AI inquiry that the country’s copyright laws are fine as they are, that AI companies can negotiate licences like everyone else — and that those companies have probably already scraped its content for model training.

What happened

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation rejected a proposal being floated in government circles: an “opt out” carveout that would effectively let AI companies train on domestically produced content unless a rightsholder objects. Kate Gilchrist, the ABC’s head of content and legal operations, told the Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence that the current copyright system is “completely adequate to manage the business of AI.”

Her objection to the opt-out idea was practical: it puts the burden on rightsholders. “We cannot scour the internet and ensure that we are opting out on all those sites. It simply does not work,” she told the inquiry. Instead, she said, “AI can engage in negotiations with rightsholders for the relevant licences that they need.”

The scraping question

Asked directly whether the ABC believes AI companies have used its content for training without paying, Gilchrist was careful but pointed: “I do not think we have conclusive evidence that we have been scraped but I expect that there is a likely possibility that we have been.” The inquiry heard that OpenAI and Anthropic had both called for a relaxing of Australian copyright rules; representatives of both companies were scheduled to appear at the same inquiry later on Tuesday.

In a lighter moment, the ABC’s David Sutton, a senior executive for policy and regulatory affairs, was asked whether the broadcaster planned to replace its newsreaders with AI-generated versions. The answer: no plan to replace humans, though he could imagine narrow contexts in programme-making where synthetic media might be used.

Why it matters

This is the same fight playing out worldwide — publishers saying AI companies built fortunes on content they never paid for, and AI labs saying licensing everything would strangle progress. The ABC’s line is unusually clean: no law changes needed, just negotiate and pay. If Australia — one of at least four running AI inquiries there — rejects the opt-out model, it strengthens the case that AI training on copyrighted content requires permission and payment by default. And the ABC’s likely-scraped admission, without conclusive proof, captures the industry’s central asymmetry: everyone suspects their content was taken, and almost no one can prove it.

FAQ

What did the ABC reject? A proposed “opt out” clause that would give AI companies access to Australian content unless rightsholders objected — the ABC says the burden shouldn’t fall on creators.

Did the ABC say its content was scraped? Not conclusively — but its head of content and legal operations said there is a likely possibility it has been.

Is the ABC replacing newsreaders with AI? No. It said it has no plan to recreate its newsreaders, though synthetic media could appear in narrow programme-making contexts.

Sources: Reuters