AI companies bulk-buy rare books, cut spines, scan at high speed, shred originals; federal judge rules fair use

A detailed report reveals AI companies are bulk-buying rare books via ISBNdb, scanning them with high-speed machines that cut off spines, then shredding the originals. A federal judge ruled it fair use because eliminating the original means only one copy exists at a time. Anthropic hired the former head of Google Books partnerships to get 'all the books in the world.' The report highlights irreversible destruction of nearly unique copies.

• Anthropic
• data scraping
• ethics
• AI companies
• rare books
• ISBNdb
• fair use
• destruction of originals