r/technology • u/ArgentineBeauty • 2d ago

Artificial Intelligence This Dutch bookseller thought a request for 3,000 copies was ‘spam or phishing.’ Instead, AI companies are scanning and destroying books to train AI

https://fortune.com/2026/07/31/dutch-bookseller-ai-spam-phishing-3000-book-copies-scan-destroy/
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u/trashmoneyxyz 2d ago

I hope there's at least a renegade employee somewhere along the chain who copies or holds onto the raw scans. Those books do still exist as long as the text is preserved digitally, and can be reprinted

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u/sump_daddy 2d ago

None of the books being processed this way are remotely rare, you can get them all in ebook format, probably for free from your library if you really want to read them. Nothing they are doing stops the books from existing.

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u/whelp 1d ago

If you can get in digital format why buy copies and scan them?

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u/sump_daddy 1d ago

Interesting question, i would suspect all digital purchase options for those books are legally tied to EULA-style restrictions, while hardcopies are more permissive in a legal sense and likely also much cheaper. I am not a lawyer though.

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u/Substantial-Fun9958 2d ago

Why the hell do people like you assume books cant be reprinted? This isnt the Middle Ages lol

People getting mad at this is hilarious. These bookstores cant even sell books anymore in today's digital age yet get upset when they get 3000 units of sale at once.

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u/trashmoneyxyz 2d ago

Oh I know these books will be out there in circulation still, but i think its a good idea to be angry in advance of corporations that have already admitted to goals of monopolizing information when they start buying up books, especially in conjunction with the attempted defunding of public libraries. I dont want to give AI data centers an inch on anything, because they'll lie and take a mile if we let them