Library and Archives Canada cracking down on AI books amid copyright threats

Canadian author and publisher groups say they are pleased to hear that Library and Archives Canada (LAC) recently updated its ISBN (International Standard Book Numbers) policy to limit registrations for AI-generated books and other content.

“This change not only protects Canadian authors and our valuable creative sector, it also allows Canada‘s cultural and heritage identity to continue to be developed and shaped by human authors, and not by artificial intelligence or machines,” said the Canadian Authors Association in a statement on Thursday.

ISBNs are used to identify a specific edition of a book or monograph, including internationally, and can help ensure a book is widely distributed to maximize its sales potential. LAC says eligible Canadian publishers can request a free ISBN for printed books, ebooks, audio books and educational or instructional DVDs.

This comes as AI’s impact on intellectual property becomes a growing concern, with a consortium of Canadian news publishers moving this month to sue AI company Anthropic, the makers of Claude, for allegedly using their copyrighted content to train their large language models without paying to license it. Meanwhile, Ottawa is still without modernized copyright protections to protect against unlicensed AI training and replication, which were not addressed in its new federal AI Strategy earlier this year.

“By registering with ISBN Canada, you declare that your publication was written by a human author,” says Library and Archives Canada on its website, which was updated on Oct. 9.

“You may use AI tools only for limited support tasks, such as brainstorming ideas, checking grammar, or formatting your book. ISBN Canada limits the quantity of ISBNs for works whose content is primarily generated by AI (text, illustration, translation).”

It adds: “LAC is currently reviewing its policy regarding the use of AI content creation and our guidance is subject to change.”

LAC also says the ISBN registration itself does not provide copyright protection.

The Canadian Authors Association said they “applaud” the changes.

“Canadian Authors Association is proud to have played a role through their advocacy in this change in the rules with ISBN numbers, governed by Library and Archives Canada. While we applaud this change, we recognize that this is only a first step,” said the Canadian Authors Association.

“We await further information to see how the self declaration of human authorship is monitored and verified by Library and Archives Canada, as well as which penalties may be delivered should the self declaration be proven to be false and the book written by AI.”

The Association of Canadian Publishers said the federal government’s changes are “aligned” with their values, and hopes it will lead to more stringent policy that helps protect human-authored creative work.

“The ISBN policy requiring a declaration of human authorship is aligned with our values. Our members publish works that are the products of human creativity, scholarship, artistry, and craft. We do not support the use of AI to replace or substitute for human creative work,” said the Association of Canadian Publishers in a statement on Thursday.

“Over the last few years, publishers and authors have faced a flood of low-quality, unverifiable, copycat products that are AI-generated and uploaded for sale online. AI-slop books crowd out legitimate titles and create consumer confusion, with real risks to the public from disinformation.”

“We hope that by limiting ISBNs to human-authored books, this new policy will lead to less fraud in the market.”

The federal government unveiled its first official AI strategy in June, but it did not include a focus on copyright protections, including for authors.

In an interview at the time, Artificial Intelligence Minister Solomon’s parliamentary secretary Taleeb Noormohamed said that work is still underway, and that Canadians should “stay tuned.”

“There’s a lot of comprehensive work that’s being done,” he said, including “ongoing conversations” between Solomon and Culture Minister Marc Miller as well as consultations with the artistic and creative sectors who have made the importance of copyright protection “very, very clear to us.”

In 2025, Solomon’s office said it planned to address the issue of copyright in the strategy, including by emphasizing the role of creators in developing cultural sovereignty protections.

Global News sent a request for comment to Minister Solomon’s office Wednesday asking if this update to ISBN Canada’s policy on AI relates to Ottawa’s updated AI Strategy for intellectual property and copyright policy.

A spokesperson acknowledged the request Wednesday, but a response was not received by publication.

– With a file from Global News’ Sean Boynton