Welcome to our Newsletter, bringing you the latest in Intellectual Property, Technology and Media Law news.

THE COSTS OF COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT: HOW DAMAGES ARE CALCULATED

In the event of copyright infringement, the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) provides that an entity that infringes copyright can be subject to an account of profits, damages, or additional damages.  In this article, Luke Dale, Max Soulsby and Alexandra Beal examine the ways courts have implemented these remedies and what parties can expect in relation to copyright infringement.

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DISNEY AND UNIVERSAL BRING ACTION AGAINST MIDJOURNEY AI

There have been a string of recent cases in the US raised against the developers behind generative AI models. Luke Dale and Bellarose Watts discuss the recent proceedings filed by entertainment giants Disney and Universal and their related entities against Midjourney Inc’s generative AI Image Service, and the unconventional defence submitted by the AI developer that it is not the AI with the infringing mindset but possibly users themselves.

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RECORD BILLION-DOLLAR COPYRIGHT SETTLEMENT PROPOSED IN AI TRAINING CASE

Earlier this month Daniel Kiley, Max Soulsby and Christopher Power wrote about two sets of US copyright proceedings against the developers of AI models.  Per our article, both US courts were potentially willing to accept that some use of copyright works for training AI models could be ‘fair use’, but not in all circumstances.  One such instance was Anthropic’s use of pirated copies of books as training material, which was ‘inherently, irredeemably infringing‘ and could not be justified as fair use.

Since the publication of our article, Anthropic has agreed to pay US$1.5 billion to settle those claims.  This is being touted as a record copyright settlement, but with around 500,000 works involved, each author is likely to receive around US$3,000 per work.

This settlement is subject to approval by US District Judge William Alsup, who has expressed concerns that its terms do not address important questions about how the compensation would be directed, particularly for works with multiple authors, and who reportedly suggested that the deal might be being forced ‘down the throat of authors‘.

We continue to await the final outcome of these matters, but in the interim our initial commentary considers the fair use questions raised in the cases.

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In case you missed it, the following articles were recently written and published by our team:

ExPRIS DELIVERY – TIMETABLE SET FOR THE COMMENCEMENT OF WA’S NEW PRIVACY LAWS

The countdown is on! The Western Australian Government has confirmed details for commencement of substantive obligations under the Privacy and Responsible Information Sharing Act 2024 (WA) (PRIS Act).

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CAN YOU OWN THE GOOSE THAT LAYS GOLDEN EGGS? COPYRIGHT IN MACHINE LEARNING MODELS

While much has been made about the whether the output of generative AI systems is copyrightable, a less discussed question is whether the machine learning models themselves are protected by copyright.

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LAUNCHING SATELLITES IN THE OUTBACK

Australia has marked a major milestone with the first launch from Australia of a locally made orbital launch vehicle, a brief flight that signals significant progress for the national space industry. The event highlights the complexity of the regulatory process and recent reforms that aim to balance innovation with safety.

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OAIC INVITES CONSULTATION ON CHILDREN’S ONLINE PRIVACY CODE

The OAIC is consulting on the new Children’s Online Privacy Code. Feedback has underscored that existing protections and consent mechanisms are not sufficient.

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