culture
Sunshine Coast artists mobilise this week over AI copyright rules and local workshop surge
A rush of sign-ups for regional creative sessions has locals swapping notes on how national law changes could hit their incomes.
How we reported this
More than 120 Sunshine Coast painters, writers and musicians have booked into a July 20 forum at Maroochydore Library to map out responses to federal moves that would loosen copyright protections for AI training data.
The timing coincides with fresh national debate over data-centre expansion and artist payments, pushing local groups to compare notes before the next parliamentary sitting.
Venues and groups driving the conversation
Session hosts include the Sunshine Coast Arts Alliance and Noosa Regional Gallery staff, who are running parallel drop-in clinics at the gallery’s Gibson Road site on July 18 and 19 for members worried about lost licensing fees. Both organisations have circulated draft submission templates that reference the 2025 regional arts census showing 47 per cent of local practitioners rely on secondary licensing for at least a quarter of their annual earnings.
Numbers from the alliance’s own ticketing system show registrations jumped 38 per cent in the first week of July compared with the same period last year, with the $15 entry fee covering printed resource packs and a follow-up Zoom briefing on July 22.
Next steps for participants
Anyone wanting to join can register through the alliance website before Friday or turn up early at the library’s meeting room two on the day; organisers say printed copies of the draft submission will be available on site for last-minute edits before the August 4 federal deadline.