AI companies are shredding rare books

Post by gowld » Mon, Jul 27, 2026, 3:10 PM UTC

breezybottom wrote: post #64

stuartjohnson12 wrote: post #9

I think people are, on the whole, too precious about old things. In the case of books produced after major commercial printing began, I don't believe it is the paper that imbues the book with historical value. Indeed, I think there's a high chance that this process increases preservation of the most relevant part of the media - the actual content! There are tons of old rolls of film slowly rotting away in warehouses…

That's only true if you think digital storage has more longevity than paper. It doesn't.

Post by xboxnolifes » Mon, Jul 27, 2026, 3:12 PM UTC

Post by 03284782470 » Mon, Jul 27, 2026, 3:14 PM UTC

Jweb_Guru wrote: post #118

oliwarner wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a bizarre comparison. Weeding is the natural process of disposing of less-demand books. Like the rest of us, libraries operate in finite space, so if they want new books, they have to remove ones their users aren't using. Most libraries will try to sell books before disposing of them in any destructive way. What similarities do you see here?

People are very desperate to try to claim that something that's somewhat obviously morally wrong is actually highly nuanced, because it makes them feel uncomfortable.

Post by silverlimetea » Mon, Jul 27, 2026, 3:16 PM UTC

ACCount37 wrote: post #10

The publishers sued AI companies for training on shadow library data, hoping to negotiate content deals for big $$$ down the line. Instead, they got analog hole'd. Turns out that buying an old book for $5 and destructively scanning it for $25 is way cheaper than paying extortion fees to the copyright-mongers. What I don't buy is it being "rare, precious books". First, they're not after ancient texts - they're after t…

Post by robertoandred » Mon, Jul 27, 2026, 3:16 PM UTC

andrepd wrote: post #186

thechao wrote: post #4

Which book that was rare was destroyed? I'm interested to know a few titles.

Rare or not, destroying books is in itself a morally repugnant act. I don't know man, it's not so long ago we used to view nazi book burnings as an archetype of evil. Today companies are offering book-burning-as-a-service and it hardly causes a stir. Bearded German man was right.