Experts warn AI copyright changes could breach Australian constitution and spark huge compensation rights case

In a simmering debate centred on the same legal point as the movie The Castle, the question of acquiring property "on just terms" is emerging as a key concern amid furious lobbying from tech companies and rights holders ahead of a looming federal government announcement on AI. "We could be liable for'just terms' compensation for acquiring that property for every rights holder on Earth," Ross Cadell, a Nationals senator, told Guardian Australia. Michaelia Cash, the shadow attorney general, said the government should not "sell out Australian creators and rights holders in the rush to entice AI investment". Anthropic suggested an "opt-out" model which would allow it to scrape content unless a rightholder deployed digital protections signaling an objection. "If they go ahead with an opt-out model, it does raise a real question of whether the government is acquiring the intellectual property rights of others," said Cadell, a member of the federal parliamentary committee on AI . "How we support property rights is core to this." Anne Twomey, professor emerita of law at the University of Sydney, said the issue was exceedingly complex and noted no legislative proposal had been aired.