News Australia has launched a licence agreement to give corporate Australia new confidence to download, share and copy content from across the publisher’s news, information and entertainment network, helping reduce the significant legal and financial risk copyright infringement poses.
The new product, the Corporate Copyright Licence, is a straightforward licence available for companies to cover staff downloading and sharing of News Australia content as well as the right to post copyrighted material externally to digital platforms, including web and social and client emails.
Importantly, given the rise of AI, the licence also caters for copyrighted content to be used as a prompt in AI tools as well as delivering predictable value and ease-of-compliance.
News Australia’s managing director, tech platform partnerships Nicholas Gray said many businesses do not comprehend the importance of having the right safeguards in place when it comes to copyright.
“The research shows that content sharing is second nature in today’s digital workplace and I would say most people know this from their own experience,” he said.
“While people may not realise they may require a licence to copy content, the need for an organisation to de-risk their legal and financial exposure in this regard has never been greater with AI’s inexorable growth and the potential it has to supercharge copyright theft within the workplace.
“For Australian business this means the risk of not complying has never been so great.”
Copyright is the legal framework that protects content creators—from software to poetry, to music to news media—by ensuring fair payment through upholding rights holders’ moral rights, including attribution, accuracy and integrity.
Gray said the licence had an added benefit for business.
“In an era of misinformation and disinformation, obtaining a licence gives confidence that the information being copied and shared comes from a professional news media organisation like News Corp Australia- this really makes it invaluable.”
He then on concluded by stating the corporate community should set the standard for legal copyright compliance.
“A retailer or manufacturer wouldn’t allow other businesses to steal their output, so why should copyright holders?
“But there is no doubt in my mind that Australian business wants to do the right thing and it’s up to us to help them do so.”
