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World's largest open library calls for volunteers to scan and preserve physical books as AI companies buy, scan, and destroy them — Anna's Archive says ‘time is running out’ as ‘knowledge is permanent (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 6 days ago by to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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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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[–] 37 points 6 days ago (4 children)

I have access to a book scanner, but I’m not sure what books need to be scanned, are legal to be scanned and uploaded (I don’t want to get expelled for using a school scanner to do something illegal), or whether there is personally identifiable data in the PDFs it generates (I think I can also save in GIF and maybe PNG?). Is there a beginner’s guide anywhere for all this?

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  • [–] 43 points 6 days ago (1 child)

    Anna's Archive does have guides for all of that (apart from the legal advice) on their site (use wikipedia to find the right domain).

    I don't think you'd want to do so as a university student unless you want to share the same fate as Aaron Swartz though.

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  • [–] 20 points 6 days ago (2 children)

    Surely at least the stuff out of copyright is kosher to scan and share? Which seems like a good area to focus on if they’re being bought up and destroyed

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  • [–] 29 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

    Stuff that's out of copyright isn't an issue though.

    The reason AI companies are destroying books is because current US copyright caselaw (most recently the Anthropic lawsuit) doesn't allow books to be copied, but considers it fair use if you transform the format of a legally purchased book (like from print to digital) without creating a new copy. By destroying the original book, they haven't made a copy of it, and so they operate within US law.

    This doesn't apply to public domain books (books that are no longer copyrighted) as you can do whatever you want with public domain content.

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  • [–] [S] 6 points 6 days ago

    Maybe there is a way to do this anonymously? Anna's Archive deals with books new and old, but maybe that 'physical-only' book that has no digital print would be the best place to start?

    I remember no-eyes from #ebooks (IRCHighWay) prioritized recommendations of novels (fiction) to expand their available books, so I think that's the safest type of book to scan?

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  • [–] 24 points 6 days ago (1 child)

    Im gonna be real chief. Stop worrying about IP legality. Scan and upload everything you can get your hands on, wherever you can reasonably upload it.

    AI companies are violating all copyright laws at all times of day and then destroying the originals, or even DMCA claiming them. You cannot fight that and be worried about legality.

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  • [–] 12 points 6 days ago

    I have repurposed an old Xbox external drive and have been ripping every optical disc in my extended family's houses as well as opened it up to friends, anyone who wants to add to the collection is welcome to take from it, all I have to do is bring the drive with me, and they can grab whatever they want off it.

    Fuck IP laws, fuck trademarks, fuck copyright.

    If companies get to arbitrarily decide we can't have access to things (especially if you have given someone money for it), then why should we give a fuck what they think?

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