UK Campaigner Warns Australia After Britain Backs Away From AI Copyright Opt-Out

Britain wanted to let AI developers train on copyrighted work unless rights holders opted out. After a fierce campaign by creators, that is no longer the government’s preferred approach. Beeban Kidron, who helped lead the opposition, is now urging Australia not to weaken protections for its own creators.

In an interview with the Guardian, Kidron warned Prime Minister Anthony Albanese against “selling Australian creatives down the river.” Her warning draws on the British fight; it does not say Australia is pursuing the same opt-out proposal.

How the opt-out proposal lost support

The UK government initially preferred a broad exception to copyright rules for AI training, paired with an opt-out for rights holders. Creative-industry respondents feared models could learn from their work without compensation and then compete with them. Many technology respondents argued that exceptions would support innovation. Of 11,520 responses to the government’s consultation, a majority rejected its preferred option.

Opponents made the dispute hard to ignore. Kidron pushed legislative amendments intended to block the proposal and helped organize celebrity opposition. Composer and former AI executive Ed Newton-Rex assembled Is This What We Want?, an album of recordings from dormant music spaces backed by more than 1,000 musicians. Another protest, Don’t Steal This Book, listed 10,000 writers’ names in an otherwise empty paperback.

Albanese has been a leader in standing up to tech. He should not squander his reputation by selling Australian creatives down the river.

Beeban Kidron, speaking to the Guardian

A reversal, not a settled policy

In March, the UK government said the broad exception with an opt-out was no longer its preferred way forward. It cited strong views in the consultation, gaps in evidence and a changing international AI landscape. It was also uncertain whether copyright reform would bring substantial AI investment to Britain.

The government plans to gather more evidence, consider other approaches and examine ways to help rights holders control and license their work. It has withdrawn its preference for one answer, not set a final replacement.

The argument behind Kidron’s warning

Kidron says the campaign connected with people who care about the songs, books and pictures in their lives. A UK poll cited by the Guardian found that seven in 10 adults supported royalties for copyright holders whose work had been used to train AI models. Support for payment does not, by itself, settle which copyright rule should apply.

Antony Walker, deputy chief executive of techUK, told the Guardian that rights holders had made the British debate one-sided. The tech industry’s counterargument is that AI companies could train on protected work in the UK while rights holders receive adequate compensation. That possibility remains an argument, not the replacement policy the government has chosen.