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Canadian authors and publishers groups say they are pleased to hear that Library and Archives Canada (LAC) recently updated its ISBN (International Standard Book Number) policy to limit the registration of books and other AI-generated content.
“This change not only protects Canadian writers and our valuable creative sector, but also allows Canada’s cultural identity and heritage to continue to be developed and shaped by human writers, and not by artificial intelligence or machines,” the Canadian Writers Association said in a statement on Thursday.
ISBNs are used to identify specific editions 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 free ISBNs for print books, eBooks, audiobooks and educational or instructional DVDs.
This comes as AI’s impact on intellectual property is increasingly worrying, with a consortium of Canadian news publishers moving this month to sue AI company Anthropic, maker of Claude, for allegedly using copyrighted content to train their large language models without paying for a license. Meanwhile, Ottawa still doesn’t have modern copyright protections to protect against unauthorized AI training and replication, which was not addressed in the new federal AI Strategy earlier this year.
“By registering for a Canadian ISBN, you certify that your publication was written by a human author,” says Library and Archives Canada on its website, updated Oct. 9.
“You can use AI tools only for limited support tasks, such as brainstorming ideas, checking grammar, or formatting your book. ISBN Canada limits the number of ISBNs for works for which the majority of the content is generated by AI (text, illustrations, translations).”
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It added: “LAC is currently reviewing its policies regarding the use of AI content generation and our guidance is subject to change.”
LAC also said that ISBN registration itself does not provide copyright protection.
The Canadian Writers Association said it “applauds” the change.
“The Canadian Writers Association is proud to have played a role through their advocacy in changes to the ISBN number regulations, which are set by Library and Archives Canada. While we applaud these changes, we recognize that they are only a first step,” said the Canadian Writers Association.
“We await further information to see how self-declarations made by humans are monitored and verified by Library and Archives Canada, as well as what penalties may be imposed if the self-declarations are proven to be false and the book was written by AI.”
The Canadian Publishers Association says the federal government’s changes are “aligned” with its values, and hopes it will lead to stricter policies that help protect creative works written by humans.
“ISBN’s policy requiring a declaration of human authorship is consistent with our values. Our members publish works that are products of human creativity, scholarship, arts and crafts. We do not support the use of AI to replace or replace human creative works,” the Canadian Publishers Association said in a statement on Thursday.
“Over the past few years, publishers and authors have faced a flood of low-quality, unverifiable, copycat products generated by AI and uploaded for sale online. Books using AI are displacing legitimate titles and creating consumer confusion, with real risks to society from disinformation.”
“We hope that by limiting ISBNs to books written by humans, this new policy will reduce fraud in the market.”
The federal government launched its first official AI strategy in June, but it did not include a focus on copyright protection, including for authors.
In an interview at the time, Artificial Intelligence Minister Solomon’s parliamentary secretary, Taleeb Noormohamed, said that work was still ongoing, and Canadians should “stay tuned.”
“There is a lot of comprehensive work underway,” he said, including “ongoing conversations” between Solomon and Culture Minister Marc Miller as well as consultations with the arts and creative sector that have made the importance of copyright protection “very, very clear to us.”
In 2025, Sulaiman’s office said it plans to address copyright issues in the strategyincluding by emphasizing the role of creators in developing the protection of cultural sovereignty.
Global News sent a request for comment to Minister Solomon’s office on Wednesday to ask whether this update to Canada’s ISBN policy on AI relates to Ottawa’s updated AI Strategy for intellectual property and copyright policy.
A spokesperson acknowledged the request on Wednesday, but no response was received by publication.
– With files from Sean Boynton of Global News
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
