Amazon accused of destroying rare books for AI training
Social media erupts over reports that Amazon is pulping rare books to digitize them without preserving physical copies.
What to know
- Amazon faces accusations of destroying rare books during digitization for AI training, with no apparent legal obligation to do so.
- Non-destructive scanning technology has existed since at least 2002—Google scanned 25 million library books without destroying them—raising questions about Amazon's choices.
- Commenters argue the destruction serves Amazon's monopoly interests, particularly given its ownership of AbeBooks, a major rare book marketplace.
- The backlash reflects broader frustration with billionaire power, wealth concentration, and corporate control over cultural artifacts and information access.
The dispute Whether destruction is laziness/cost-cutting versus calculated monopoly strategy—some commenters see it as simple cheapness, others view it as deliberate control. · positions read across 250 posts and comments
Book destruction is deliberately strategic to monopolize control of information and eliminate competition.
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“If they destroy the books they can control, change, and own the information.”
themadshepherd.bsky.social · Bluesky
Non-destructive scanning technology exists and has been available for over two decades, making destruction inexcusable.
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“Google built the technology to scan books without destroying them back in 2002. And scanned 25 million books loaned to them by libraries with the Google Books project. They even open-sourced the hardware and software!”
gaffa.bsky.social · Bluesky
The solution is consumer action: boycott Amazon and shop locally or with ethical alternatives.
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“What's really bad is that Amazon owns so may online marketplaces such as AbeBooks so like really if you want an alternative you gotta buy local. Boycott Amazon! Support you local Bookstores!!!”
jnjshow.bsky.social · Bluesky
This exemplifies systemic billionaire greed and demands broader regulatory action including taxation and wealth restrictions.
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“Tax the rich, at least 10%. They'll still be billionaires & try to sabotage our government. They can afford it.”
modowriter.bsky.social · Bluesky
“They're taking copies the public could have and destroying them, making their digital products more valuable. Not illegal that I'm aware of, but immoral AF.”
tschet.bsky.social, Bluesky commenter · Bluesky · Aug 24, 4:15 PM
Amazon / Jeff Bezos Alleged destroyer of rare booksGoogle Historical precedent
The record 1 articles and posts · last 30 days
What people are saying 23 voices from 1 site · best of 250 · verbatim
- Why would Amazon choose destructive scanning when non-destructive methods have existed for over 20 years?
- Does Amazon's ownership of AbeBooks create a direct financial incentive to eliminate the physical rare books it would otherwise profit from reselling?
- What legal protections should exist for rare and historically significant books?
- Aug 24
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E
“The Earth is not dying, it is being killed, and those who are killing it have names and addresses.” - Utah Phillips
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S
Problem with this is that the scanning process is destructive. The book spines are cut to turn a book into a stack of paper that can be rapidly fed through a high speed scanner. There's generally not enough paper margin left to rebind it.
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They destroy it because copyright law only lets you make a digital copy of a book if you destroy the original
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Here's the mechanism and a talk about how it works. I was slightly mistaken, Google had a very sophisticated system, which they patented. This is a simpler and open source one but still allows you to digitize all of the pages and not destroy the book.
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It is a lot more profitable for them if they are the only ones having the book to offer
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Who controls the past, controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.
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it's not short sighted to them. They see a future where they monopolize literature and have full control of its content and distribution because the biggest threat to the wealthy is a literate public. If they can cut a generation off from literature they can end opposition to a ruling class.
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As much as I disagree with them using the books for AI… there is no reason on earth that justifies destroying them. Unless of course, you are altering the text and don’t want to leave evidence!
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Thriftbooks, bookshop.org for ebooks, libro.fm for audiobooks, libraries, and storygraph instead of Goodreads (it's owned by Amazon). Even using Barnes and Noble is better.
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These tech oligarchs are truly some evil pieces of shit.
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Because our cultural artifacts shouldn’t be property that can be destroyed by billionaires who oppose them.
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I've boycotted amazon since their beginnings as a marketplace
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God forbid Bezos should act like a decent human being and donate those books to schools and libraries. He disgusts me.
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It's very short sighted. Digitising is all well and good until the system fails and everything is lost. Physical books will likely outlast our systems.
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He is evil. It's a must-have character flaw if you want to be a billionaire/trillionaire.
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D
The real welfare queens and terrorists are not coming from other countries, they're right on Capitol Hill, holding office, wearing robes and badges, and running multi billion dollar corporations. All on your dime. Your oppression is their profession. pathological psychopaths.
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Tax the rich, at least 10%. They’ll still be billionaires & try to sabotage our government. They can afford it. If they want to move to India or Africa fine, nail them with an even higher import tariff if they move. The AI they’re funding to taking jobs anyways 🖕. Enough of this trickle down BS 🙄
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It's just because they're lazy and cheap. Google built the technology to scan books without destroying them back in 2002. And scanned 25 million books loaned to them by libraries with the Google Books project. They even open-sourced the hardware and software!
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If they destroy the books they can control, change, and own the information.
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Another billionaire getting caught cheating and/or criming to support their insatiable greed.
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We should have a way of protecting rare books that is comparable to the way we protect historical properties. Local, supplemented by a National Registry - and even an international registry for notable books. With increasing levels of protection for each, and corresponding increased qualifications.
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What's really bad is that Amazon owns so may online marketplaces such as AbeBooks so like really if you want an alternative you gotta buy local. Boycott Amazon! Support you local Bookstores!!! Also Use Thriftbooks!! They are great!
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J
Destroying rare books should immediately incur a life sentence.