cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/74448280
cross-posted from: https://kbin.earth/m/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com/t/3120649
As AI tech companies increasingly buy and destroy books to feed to their AI models, Anna’s Archive is calling for volunteers to help preserve them for the public record.
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I don’t get it. Can’t they just…print more books?
That should be the answer, but thanks to Disney extending copyright to basically a century, the answer is no.
You would think everyone clutching pearls about “rare books” would be on-board to relax that nonsense, so a corporation scanning every book could just post their scan. You would really think.
So the copyright doesn’t extend to sales?
… yes, the entire idea of copyright is that owning a copy is distinct from the right to sell more copies.
Right, but we’re not talking about owning, we’re talking about selling. The AI companies are buying these books. Which means someone is selling them.
Are you confused by the concept of a used book store?
They’re buying old books. Books that are no longer in print. These specific copies were produced legitimately, by the rightsholders, but new copies are no longer being made. Whether the publisher could reprint them might be legally or logistically complicated. More often, nobody cares.
