AI Book Scanning and Destruction Sparks Copyright and Preservation Backlash
Multiple posts point to a controversial data-acquisition pipeline: some AI companies are accused of buying old, out-of-print, and rare books in bulk, cutting their spines for high-speed scanning, and then destroying the physical copies. In the material provided, these books are described as especially attractive because they are less likely to contain AI-generated text, making them “cleaner” training data. The alleged involvement of Anthropic via a project called Project Panama is still based on reposts and claims rather than first-hand evidence here.
Confirmed
- Across several posts citing the same reporting, the core claimed workflow is consistent: books are ordered in bulk by ISBN, destructively scanned, and then pulped or recycled. The process is described as ISBN-driven rather than rarity-aware, meaning scarce editions could be swept into the same pipeline.
- ISBNdb is repeatedly named as an intermediary that can place anonymous orders at a scale of up to 1 million books.
- Several posts say books published before 2022 are especially desirable because they are less likely to contain AI-generated text.
- According to @ns123abc’s reposted account, a related court dispute frames the issue around where training data came from, how it was processed, and who bears legal responsibility. @AnnaCiaunica’s repost also says a federal judge is examining whether this kind of scanning and training qualifies as fair use.
Unconfirmed
- Posts by @BrianRoemmele, reposts cited by @rickasaurus, and comments from @Yamapama link Anthropic to an internal effort called Project Panama. In these claims, the project allegedly began in 2024, aimed to destructively scan books at massive scale, may have involved 7 million books, cost billions of dollars, and included language suggesting the company “didn’t want the outside world to know.” In the provided material, all of those details remain second-hand.
- A repost highlighted by @rkulidzan offers a counterpoint from a second-generation used/rare bookseller in Houston: they did encounter one unusual order for 70 books and briefly paused online sales, but after reviewing the activity they believed most purchases were obscure older books rather than a broad sweep of rare collectibles.
- @paulnovosad suggests another possible motive: companies may not care about owning the physical books so much as building a large scan archive that could later help them argue in copyright litigation that they likely bought the relevant copies at some point. This is presented as speculation, not established fact.
Why it matters
- If destructive scanning followed by disposal becomes standard practice, low-circulation editions, out-of-print works, and books with only a few surviving copies could be permanently lost through ordinary market channels.
- Former Google Books PM @RexDouglass argues that today’s AI book-scanning backlash is partly an aftereffect of earlier copyright battles: when publishers and rightsholders failed to establish a durable path for large-scale digitization, companies were pushed toward more aggressive and opaque ways of acquiring data.
2026-07-27 ~ 2026-07-28 · 17 related posts
- Episode 1: AI Book Scanning and Destruction Sparks Copyright and Preservation Backlash(2026-07-27, 17 posts)
- Episode 2: AI Training Copyright Dispute Reflects Shift in Knowledge Access(2026-07-28, 2 posts)
- Episode 3: Anthropic's Book-Shredding for AI Training Sparks Copyright and Culture Debate(2026-07-29, 23 posts)
- Episode 4: Anthropic Exposed for Destroying Books to Train AI(2026-07-30, 4 posts)
- Episode 5: Anthropic Contractor Accused of Destroying Rare Books for AI Training(2026-08-02, 3 posts)
- Episode 6: Anthropic Accused of Destroying Physical Books for AI Training(2026-08-05, 2 posts)
- Episode 7: Booksellers Suspect AI Companies Destroying Rare Books for Training Data(2026-08-13, 2 posts)
- Report says AI companies are training on rare books and destroying the originals at scale — Steap-Edit · 2026-07-27
- AI companies are bulk-buying rare books, scanning them, then shredding the originals — teortaxesTex · 2026-07-27
- AI companies are buying rare books to scan them, then shredding the originals — seanmcdonaldxyz · 2026-07-28
- Anthropic faces backlash over Project Panama, a plan to scan all the world’s books — BrianRoemmele · 2026-07-28
- Former Google Books PM says today’s AI book-scanning backlash was shaped by earlier copyright fights — RexDouglass · 2026-07-28
- Anthropic piracy allegation resurfaces over Project Panama and 7 million books — rickasaurus · 2026-07-28
- AI company accused in court of destroying books after training on them — ns123abc · 2026-07-28
- Bookseller says the viral “AI companies buying rare books” story overstates the case — rkulidzan · 2026-07-28
- Anthropic faces backlash over claims it is destructively scanning millions of books — Yamapama · 2026-07-28
- AI companies may need physical-book scans to defend training-data lawsuits — paulnovosad · 2026-07-28
- A long thread contrasts Carnegie’s libraries with Anthropic as a ‘shredder’ — TinfoilTricorn · 2026-07-28
6 near-duplicate retellings: xuanalogue · fredahshi · nptacek · round · pepoji · AnnaCiaunica