On Wednesday 5 November, a landmark Bill was passed to update Australia’s copyright laws so teachers can legally use the same lesson materials whether students are in class, online or in hybrid learning.
The Copyright Amendment (Remote Learning and Other Measures) Bill 2025 extends the existing classroom “show-and-tell” protections to platforms like Zoom and Teams, giving educators clearer legal footing when sharing content .
Schools have welcomed the change, but say it’s only a first step, as the law fails to meet the needs of modern schools, especially as AI becomes more common in classrooms.
Independent and Catholic sectors are calling for broader reforms, including a public-interest fair-dealing exception so teachers can safely use digital and AI tools without risking copyright breaches .
ISA Chief Executive Graham Catt a comprehensive review of how Australia’s copyright system works for schools – especially given the use of online and digital materials – is urgently needed.
“Compared to many other countries, Australian schools are increasingly being left behind,” Catt told The Educator. “In the UK, for example, schools can copy up to 5% of a work under a fair dealing exception. Yet in Australia, even fact sheets freely available online often require Australian schools to pay to use them.”
Catt said teachers should be able to use small amounts of copyright materials for educational purposes at no cost, where it doesn’t harm copyright owners.
“Non-commercial uses of AI, such as fine tuning for safe use in a school, or teaching students how to use AI safely, should also be permitted at no cost,” he said. “Similarly, schools should be able to use non-commercial content made freely available online, such as educational fact sheets or research reports.”
Catt said these types of changes would not cause harm to copyright owners.
“These reforms do recognise the importance of public interest exceptions and that they should apply equally to both in-person and online learning,” he said, adding the remote learning reforms are “a good first step” in addressing the outdated copyright laws that place Australian schools and students behind.
“The next, urgently needed reform for Australia’s copyright system is a fair dealing for education exception to help address the remaining problem areas.”
Australia must align with global AI standards
The National Catholic Education Commission (NCEC) says further reform is needed to protect schools as new technologies emerge, especially AI, which it calls “the next frontier.”
In particular, the NCEC is calling on the government to simplify licensing rules so schools can use learning materials without facing extra costs or red tape, while still respecting creators’ rights.
It says this would bring Australia into line with countries such as Singapore, Canada, Japan, the UK, the U.S and members of the European Union, which already allow public-interest use of AI in education.
“The commitment of the Albanese government to ensure learning environments are safe, outcomes based, and evidence led necessitates access to quality materials and utilisation of tools to make them available to students,” Executive Director, Jacinta Collins, said.
“The amendments to the Copyright Act are a practical reflection of those commitments and we look forward to working with the government for the benefit of all teachers and students in our schools.”
Fair dealing must balance access and ownership
Looking ahead, ISA says a new public-interest fair dealing exception for education would allow schools to use small portions of copyright materials in digital teaching and AI, without enabling commercial uses of content or replacing copying that is covered by educational statutory licences.
“Australian schools do not expect all uses of copyright content to be free, and – quite appropriately – they pay millions of dollars each year to reproduce and use copyright materials,” Catt said. “It is equally important that the system does not require a licence for every single public interest educational use of these materials.”
An example of a fair dealing for education exception, says Catt, would be a teacher being able to demonstrate how to build a simple AI tool in-class. However, he pointed out that this would not allow schools to build large language models similar to Open AI, or upload chapters of novels into a learning management system without paying a licence.
“This balance – and important protection for copyright owners – is built into a fair dealing for education exception,” he said. “The impact on an author’s markets, the impact of any use on the value of the work, and whether a licence is available, are all essential components in assessing whether an educational use would be considered fair.”