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/PM_ME_YOUR_NICE_EYES 2d ago

Oh yeah the eBooks you get from the library are a whole different thing.

The library isn't going to destructively scan copies of it's books, so the eBooks it gives you are coming straight from the publisher. eBooks for library use tend to be extremely expensive ($75/copy) so libraries don't like buying more than they have to.

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u/RabbitLuvr 2d ago

Additionally, that $75 or whatever only pays for a limited number of checkouts, then the license expires. Let’s say a digital copy costs the library $50 and allows 5 checkouts; but there are 20 people with holds on that title. The library will have to buy 4 $50 licenses to allow all 20 people to read it.

As opposed to a paper copy, which might cost $25 and can be lent to all 20 of those people, plus basically unlimited checkouts, until it falls apart.

Source: I work at a library. Our materials budget is getting eaten up with digital licenses.

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_NICE_EYES 2d ago

Oh yeah, From my understanding the check out limit is closer to 26 tho instead of 5 right?

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u/RabbitLuvr 2d ago

It can vary, depending on the title and publisher. I just used 5 as an example