Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Alan Moore, Alice Oseman, Don't Steal This Book, london book fair

London Book Fair: Alan Moore & Alice Oseman In "Don't Steal This Book"

London Book Fair 2026: Alan Moore and Alice Oseman back the "Don't Steal This Book" book

This week's London Book Fair 2026 saw a striking protest that blended activism, publishing, and a clever nod to countercultural history. Thousands of authors, nearly 10,000 in total, collaborated on a project titled Don't Steal This Book, an intentionally "empty" publication designed to spotlight concerns over AI companies training models on copyrighted books without permission or compensation.

Organised by composer, activist, and Fairly Trained founder Ed Newton-Rex, the book contains no traditional content. Instead, its pages feature a lengthy list of participating authors' names, turning the book itself into a collective signature of dissent. Notable contributors include Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro, comic book legend Alan Moore, bestselling graphic novelist Alice Oseman, bestselling crime writers Richard Osman and Mick Herron, fantasy author Philippa Gregory, and many others from across genres, including Malorie Blackman, Marian Keyes, and Alastair Reynolds.

The back cover delivers the protest's core message bluntly: "The UK government must not legalise book theft to benefit AI companies. AI companies are building their products by copying millions of books without permission or payment. The UK government is considering legalising this large-scale theft. We urge them to rule this out. AI companies should pay for books, like everyone else. If they don't, this is what we'll be left with: empty pages, writers without pay, and readers deprived of the next book they'll love."

This statement targets ongoing UK policy debates, particularly around potential exceptions or changes to copyright law that could allow broader use of creative works for AI training under "commercial research" provisions. Newton-Rex and supporters argue the AI industry has been"built on stolen work, taken without permission or payment, and at the stall at the London Book Fair, they exhibit the leaked e-mails that show the decisions by senior social media executives to authorise the use of pirated libraries of literature to train their models, rather than seeking out permission and paying for it.

The title deliberately flips Abbie Hoffman's infamous 1971 counterculture manifesto, Steal This Book, which encouraged anti-establishment acts like shoplifting and guerrilla living as a form of rebellion against consumer capitalism. Here, the inversion, "Don't Steal". reclaims that spirit to defend intellectual property in the digital age. Where Hoffman's book was a practical (and controversial) guide to living free, Don't Steal This Book is minimalist symbolism whose value lies in who's standing behind it.

Organisers distributed around 1,000 physical copies at the London Book Fair, turning the event floor into a living billboard for the cause. I got one, of course. The accompanying website lists all participating authors alphabetically, serving as both a public roster and a call to action.

The stunt follows similar high-profile protests, such as last year's "silent album" by musicians opposing UK copyright shifts favouring AI development.  As with that, the book's emptiness is the point; it also underscores a deeper anxiety. Without stronger protections, creators know their entire catalogues will be reduced to training fodder or pastiches of their work used to replace their own, devaluing decades of work and creativity.

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