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There are a ton of niche books like the one the parent is speaking of which might not be considered hugely valuable by the general public or less specialised se
by _djo_ 2mo ago
There are a ton of niche books like the one the parent is speaking of which might not be considered hugely valuable by the general public or less specialised second-hand stores, but are both rare and valuable in their niche.
For instance there were only limited production runs for a set of books on South Africa's participation in the Second World War, and getting hold of them is increasingly difficult. But they have ISBN numbers, so they fall within the group of books being collected and destroyed by AI companies, and as a result might disappear altogether, along with the knowledge inside them.
- rpdillon 2mo agoSeems like getting a copy and scanning it and releasing it as part of a digital library would be a good way to preserve the knowledge.
- _djo_ 2mo agoMaking the contents of the books available verbatim afterward would be a less bad option, yes. That's not happening though.
- rpdillon 2mo agoRight, but that's because of copyright law.
- _djo_ 2mo agoHave you seen AI companies making any effort, with their newfound immense power to get the attention of lawmakers, to lobby for amendments to copyright law to make this exercise a less destructive exercise? Because none are.
- rpdillon 2mo agoWhy would they? They're not the ones upset that they're cutting up books. They fought a court case to allow them to do it a different way that didn't require cutting up any books. They were shut down and had to pay billions, and so they're doing it the only legal way that is left to them. This is literally what the publishers asked for. If they wanted a different way, they're the copyright lobby. They are making all the rules. They can change it.
- _djo_ 2mo agoThose poor AI companies, they’re the real victims here! /s There are several things to criticise here, including the US’s terrible copyright laws and the publishers involved in that case who care more about in-print than out-of-print books. But it’s the AI companies that are actively buying up and destroying books at an unprecedented scale, which is an action they’re choosing do to and certainly don’t have to do. Therefore that’s also where the immediate focus and attention needs to be
- Aurornis 2mo ago> There are a ton of niche books like the one the parent is speaking of which might not be considered hugely valuable by the general public or less specialised second-hand stores, but are both rare and valuable in their niche. I'll ask again: Does anyone have a single example of this? Every conversation about this topic has been full of this same assertion, but nobody can ever name even a single example. We're supposed to believe it's factual.
- _djo_ 2mo agoYou’re supposed to believe it’s factual because you have investigative reporting by multiple newspapers with good track records, on the record statements by bookstore owners, and evidence presented in court cases like the one regarding Anthropic’s Project Panama. Notably, one of those piece of evidence from that Anthropic case was an internal presentation clearly stating the intention of Project Panama was to “destructively scan all the books in the world.” Beyond that, some book sellers have named specific titles, such as “an Estonian translation of John le Carré's The Mission Song, a specific edition of Anne Brontë's Agnes Grey, and the October 1983 issue of Warship monthly magazine” and “everything from 18th-century African agricultural implements to biographies of 1950s racing drivers.”[0] But getting a full list of all those sold globally is difficult. I imagine we’ll start to see some efforts to try to encourage booksellers to contribute to public lists though. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/aug/15/uk-ireland-booksellers-suspect-ai-companies-bulk-orders-data-acquisition https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/aug/15/uk-irelan...