Don’t Steal This Book- Campaign against scrapping creative content without permission

I attended the London Book Fair on Tuesday 10 March 2026 and the Publishers Association stand highlighted  “Don’t Steal This Book”, a campaign organised by Ed Newton-Rex, a composer and campaigner for protecting artists’ copyright.

Don’t Steal This Book has only the list of nearly 10,000 authors and the rest of the pages are empty. The authors  came together to publish the book as a protest against the “scraping” of their work without their permission by AI firms to train their models. 

The full list of authors can be found on the campaign’s website: dontstealthisbook.com

On 18 March 2026, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology will publish:

1. An economic impact assessment, including an assessment of each of the options put forward in the government’s consultation on copyright and AI. It may also include alternatives to these options. It must include an assessment of the economic impact of each option on copyright owners and AI developers, including individuals, micro, small, and medium-sized businesses.

2. A report on the use of copyright works in the development of AI systems, which will consider each of the 4 options put forward in the government’s consultation on copyright and AI. It may also consider alternatives to these options. These options were:

Option 0: Do nothing: Copyright and related laws remain as they are

Option 1: Strengthen copyright requiring licensing in all cases

Option 2: A broad data mining exception

Option 3: A data mining exception which allows right holders to reserve their rights, underpinned by supporting measures on transparency (government’s preferred option)

I am pictured with my colleague Chris Evans MP.