Copyright and AI Reference Group – Governance Framework

The Copyright and Artificial Intelligence Reference Group (CAIRG) has been established to facilitate engagement, information sharing and open discussion between government and non-government sectors on current and emerging copyright-AI issues to better prepare Australia for copyright challenges emerging from AI.

The CAIRG will enable stakeholders to help build collective understanding of copyright and AI-related matters, and contribute to the department’s policy development on these issues. Priority policy issues are outlined on the department’s website.

The work of the CAIRG is expected to inform the department’s preparation of advice to the Government identifying key policy problems, legal uncertainties and/or regulatory ‘gaps’ at the intersection of AI and copyright, along with potential solutions (legislative or non-legislative) to address these issues. With this goal in mind, the department’s engagement with the CAIRG in 2024 will be primarily focused on identifying, exploring and testing key problems and potential solutions.

The CAIRG will be convened and administered by the Attorney-General’s Department (the department), on behalf of the Australian Government, as a standing mechanism for engagement and consultation with stakeholders with particular expertise, knowledge and perspectives relevant to AI and copyright issues. It has no decision-making authority or executive functions.

The department will arrange and chair CAIRG meetings (including CAIRG steering committee meetings). Meetings will be online-only or hybrid (i.e. with an online attendance option) to avoid imposing costs on participants. The department is not able to offer any financial support to CAIRG participants to participate in these meetings.

The CAIRG will continue indefinitely at the Government’s discretion, subject to periodic review of its usefulness to Government and participants.

Participation in the CAIRG

The CAIRG is made up of organisational representatives and individuals who are able to contribute to the purpose of the group on the basis of one or more of the following:

• substantial expertise and/or experience in:
  • copyright law and practice
  • copyright-dependent industries (including the creative sector)
  • AI technology (including development, commercialisation, and utilisation), and
  • Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP), and
• knowledge of, and the ability to represent, the perspectives of key sectors affected by AI-copyright issues, including (but not necessarily limited to) the creative, media, technology, education, technology, research, collecting institutions, business, legal and academic sectors, as well as consumers more broadly.

A list of organisations and individuals that have participated in the CAIRG will be maintained on the department’s website.

CAIRG Steering Committee

The department has established a smaller steering committee comprising 20 representatives from within the CAIRG to assist with testing ideas and proposals ahead of sharing and consulting with the broader CAIRG.

The composition of the Steering Committee will be reviewed regularly (at least annually), in consultation with the wider CAIRG. Should a Steering Committee representative need to step down at any point, they may (at the department’s discretion) be replaced by another CAIRG participant, with the intention of maintaining a balance of perspectives on the committee.

A list of members of the Steering Committee will be maintained on the department’s website.

Participation of other Australian Government agencies

Other agencies will be invited to observe or participate in the CAIRG (including Steering Committee meetings) where topics under consideration are relevant to their portfolio responsibilities.

CAIRG papers

CAIRG participants may share papers provided by the department with others in their organisations (and for peak/representative bodies, their members) unless otherwise specified by the department. CAIRG members are asked not to share papers more broadly unless they have been published, or they have the prior agreement of the department.

How participants’ information and views will be handled

To encourage inclusive and open dialogue, CAIRG meetings (including Steering Committee meetings) will be conducted under the Chatham House Rule.¹ Similarly, where engagement with CAIRG participants occurs other than through meetings (e.g. through written submissions or online surveys), participants’ views or information will not be published or otherwise disclosed outside of the group and other participating or observing Australian Government agencies in a way that would identify participants with any particular view expressed or information shared unless prior consent has been sought and given. In practice, when the department collates information or views provided by participants into a format for distribution to the CAIRG or publication on the department’s website, it generally expects to do so in a de-identified way.

Information to be published on the department’s website

In order to provide transparency about its engagement with the CAIRG, the department will publish the following on its website:

• a list of organisations and individuals that have participated in the CAIRG and members of the Steering Committee,
• periodic high-level updates on the work of the CAIRG, including:
  • information on the priority copyright and AI issues on which participants are being consulted
  • key documents circulated to the CAIRG seeking information or feedback, and
  • where appropriate, de-identified summaries or collations of information and views received from CAIRG participants through consultations.

The department will circulate draft material to the CAIRG for comment prior to publication.

¹ The Chatham House rule provides: ‘When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.’