Intellectual Property

Intellectual property (IP) refers to the rights arising from creative and intellectual processes, such as artworks, designs and inventions. These rights include copyright and moral rights, which are legal tools for practitioners to protect their work from unauthorised use, safeguard their reputation or brand, and generate income.

NAVA asserts that artists and designers deserve the rights to control the use of their intellectual property. NAVA advocates for the protection of artists' and designers' economic and moral rights, both in law and practice. Over its history, NAVA has taken action on behalf of artists whose IP has been used without their consent or who have been pressured to waive their rights.

Understanding Moral Rights and Copyright

Moral Rights

Under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), artists hold the following moral rights in their work:

Attribution: The right to be recognised as the creator of the work.
Non-false attribution: The right to prevent others from falsely claiming authorship of the work.
Integrity: The right to ensure the work is not subjected to derogatory treatment that prejudices the creator’s honour or reputation.

Artists should never be asked to waive their moral rights.

Copyright

The Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) grants artists the economic right to reproduce their work, including:

Reproduction: The right to reproduce the work in a material form, such as images.
Publication: The right to publish the work.
Communication: The right to communicate the work to the public.

This means that in most cases others cannot copy or use images of the artist’s work without permission. Artists should not be asked to assign or waive their copyrights.

Navigating Copyright and AI

NAVA is dedicated to promoting responsible AI adoption and raising awareness about the potential harmful outcomes of its use, such as copyright infringement by generative AI platforms, the continued unlawful reproduction of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, and the derogatory treatment of artwork.

In 2023 NAVA represented the interests of artists at industry roundtables hosted by the Attorney General’s Department, highlighting the increasing risks generative AI poses to artists’ rights. In December 2023, the Attorney General announced the establishment of a Copyright and AI reference group, to which NAVA is contributing. This group aims to help the government better prepare for future copyright challenges emerging from AI.

NAVA continues to work collaboratively with other arts industry bodies to ensure a robust copyright framework that appropriately attributes and remunerates creators for the use of their work in AI training models and outputs.

Copyright Enforcement Review 2022-2023

In November 2022, the Federal Government announced a review of Australia’s current copyright enforcement regime. The review aims to protect Australian artists through an effective copyright system that keeps pace with new technology and protects creators and other copyright owners from the unauthorised use of their works.

NAVA respondedto the Copyright Enforcement Review Issues Paper in March 2023, addressing several key concerns:

Inadequate protection of Indigenous Cultural Intellectual Property (ICIP) by Copyright Law.
Emerging concerns about Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology using copyrighted materials.
The impact of copyright infringements on artists’ incomes and career sustainability.
The time-consuming and financially prohibitive nature of enforcing copyright and undertaking legal action.
Low confidence among visual artists in Australia's IP system, leading them to seek non-court remedies for infringement.

In response to the submissions, the government announced a focus on developing reform options to:

Reduce barriers to using the legal system for copyright enforcement, including options for resolving ‘small value’ copyright infringements.
Improve understanding and awareness about copyright.