Big Tech Bulk-Buys Secondhand Books to Feed AI Data, Driving Order Volumes Up

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โดย Money & Banking·GLOBAL·Read original
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Secondhand bookstores around the world are facing mysterious, massive bulk orders that clear entire stock. It is believed that technology conglomerates are buying up inventories to feed AI models, after a U.S. court ruled that using lawfully purchased books to train AI constitutes a significantly transformative use and does not infringe copyright. Court documents reveal that Anthropic's Project Panama uses destructive scanning by cutting off book spines to enable high-speed data input before recycling the paper waste. Anthropic has stated that it has no policy of purchasing or destroying antique or rare books, but experts point out that copyright law in the United Kingdom and Europe is stricter, and reproduction to build AI training datasets still requires permission from copyright holders. This phenomenon has raised ethical concerns in the book world. Although large bulk orders help clear unsold stock, the risk that historical or rare editions may be destroyed remains an ongoing issue.

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Court ruling on copyright may benefit AI training, but ethical concerns and potential stricter laws abroad create mixed impact.

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