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AI firms buy, scan, and shred rare books for data

By PulseAugur Editorial · [1 sources] ·

AI companies are reportedly purchasing large quantities of rare books, scanning them for data, and then destroying the originals. Services like ISBNdb facilitate these bulk orders, with a particular demand for pre-2022 books to avoid AI-generated content. A federal judge has deemed this practice as fair use, arguing that the destruction of the original ensures only one copy remains. AI

IMPACT This practice raises questions about data sourcing and preservation, potentially impacting the availability of historical texts for future research.

RANK_REASON The item discusses a practice involving AI companies and books, but it is presented as a report from a user on a social media platform rather than a direct announcement or investigation.

Read on Mastodon — fosstodon.org →

AI-generated summary · Google Gemini · from 1 sources. How we write summaries →

AI firms buy, scan, and shred rare books for data

How we ranked this

Signal score
0 / 100
Composite score across the factors below. Higher = stronger signal that this story matters right now.
Newsworthiness bucket
Commentary
The item discusses a practice involving AI companies and books, but it is presented as a report from a user on a social media platform rather than a direct announcement or investigation.
Source corroboration
Single-source cluster
Only one publisher covered this so far. Single-source stories can still rank when the publisher is high-authority, but they lack cross-source corroboration.
Topics
other
Editorial topic classification. Feeds into how the story surfaces on /topic/<slug> hub pages and into the per-entity coverage mix.
AI-industry relevance
Standard
On-topic for AI-industry coverage; kept in the public index.
Story freshness
49 days old
Aged out of breaking-news scoring windows; ranking reflects the durable signal from the full source set.

Full methodology in our editorial standards.

COVERAGE [1]

  1. Mastodon — fosstodon.org TIER_1 English(EN) · [email protected] ·

    Hedgie: "🦔AI companies are bulk-buying rare books, scanning them through high-speed machines that cut the spines off, and shredding the originals. A service cal

    Hedgie: "🦔AI companies are bulk-buying rare books, scanning them through high-speed machines that cut the spines off, and shredding the originals. A service called ISBNdb facilitates orders of up to a million books and keeps buyers anonymous. Pre-2022 books are premium because th…

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