AI companies are purchasing physical books in bulk, including rare and out-of-print titles, then using high-speed machines to cut the spines and scan the pages before disposing of the originals, according to court documents and industry reports.
The process targets pre-2022 books preferred as free of AI-generated content, with services facilitating anonymous bulk orders of up to one million volumes.
A federal judge ruled the digitization of purchased books, accompanied by destruction of the physical copies, qualifies as fair use. Anthropic previously conducted a large-scale version of the practice under an internal effort known as Project Panama.
The Practice and Legal Background
The details resurfaced again after a July 26, 2026, post by the X account @HedgieMarkets described the activity, citing reports of rare books with few surviving copies entering the pipeline.
đŚAI companies are bulk-buying rare books, scanning them through high-speed machines that cut the spines off, and shredding the originals. A service called ISBNdb facilitates orders of up to a million books and keeps buyers anonymous. Pre-2022 books are premium because they're⌠pic.twitter.com/0YPd8N2oi5
â Hedgie (@HedgieMarkets) July 27, 2026
The post referenced a booksellerâs account to 404 Media and statements from ISBNdb, a company that maintains a large book database and now brokers high-volume acquisitions for AI clients.
In a June 2025 ruling in Bartz v. Anthropic, U.S. District Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California held that digitizing legally purchased print books and using the resulting digital copies to train large language models was fair use. The judge noted that the process replaced the print copies with digital versions without adding new copies or redistributing them. Anthropic later settled related claims involving pirated digital books for $1.5 billion.
Anthropicâs Project Panama
Court filings unsealed in connection with a copyright lawsuit against Anthropic detailed Project Panama, which began in early 2024.
An internal planning document stated that âProject Panama is our effort to destructively scan all the books in the world.â The same document added that âWe use a âsoft codenameâ for it because we donât want it to be known that we are working on this. This document is visible to all Anthropic employees, but you should avoid talking about it in public areas, and the fact that we are working on this should not be shared with anyone outside Anthropic.â
Anthropic hired Tom Turvey, the former head of partnerships for Google Books, to obtain books. The company purchased volumes from used-book sellers including Better World Books and World of Books. A vendor proposal referenced converting 500,000 to two million books over a six-month period. The process used a hydraulic-powered cutting machine to remove pages, followed by industrial scanners, after which the physical materials were disposed of or recycled.
Role of Brokers and Booksellersâ Reports
ISBNdb markets physical books for AI training, stating on its site: âThe worldâs best AI training data is sitting on a shelf.â
It emphasizes that print books from the pre-LLM era are free of AI-generated content. The company facilitates orders ranging from 1,000 to one million books and offers non-disclosure agreements. Its site states that âThe optics problem is real. âAI company destroys two million booksâ is not a headline that generates sympathy.â
Booksellers in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, and Spain have reported bulk orders for niche and specialized titles. Pieter de Vries of De Vries & De Vries in Haarlem received a request for nearly 3,000 titles from a Singapore-based firm. A German seller noted overnight orders from the Canadian company Zoom Books for unrelated academic works. Dealers stated the purchases did not match typical collector or resale patterns.
Destructive scanning is used because it is faster and less expensive than non-destructive methods. The physical originals are eliminated so that only one copyâthe digital versionâexists at a time, a factor cited in the fair-use analysis.
Examples of AI Systems Producing Altered Versions of Established Texts
Concerns over the potential for AI tools to rewrite or alter established texts, both fictional narratives and historical accounts, have stressed the valuable role of physical copies as unchanging reference points that cannot be modified digitally.
Digital modification of original works is a concerning reality, even if cloaked as efficiency, experimentation, or entertainment. Character.ai, for example, offers a Books feature that permits users to rewrite public domain works such as âPride and Prejudiceâ and âFrankensteinâ by changing endings, settings, and inserting themselves into the narrative.
Researchers at Stony Brook University trained a model to produce a version of âThe Great Gatsbyâ written entirely without the letter âe,â generating text that retains approximate meaning while altering the original wording.
A ChatGPT-generated collection titled AI Imagines produced summaries and reimaginations of canonical novels, including âWuthering Heights,â âLittle Women,â and âJane Eyre,â that omitted major plot elements such as character deaths.
Public Discussion
No public statements from federal agencies or major education associations specifically addressing the bulk purchase and destruction of physical books for AI training were identified in recent reporting. Library organizations have previously discussed digital preservation challenges and the higher costs of e-book licensing compared with print, but those discussions predate the current reports of industrial-scale destructive scanning.
Used-book dealers have expressed concern that uncommon editions with limited surviving copies are being removed from circulation. One anonymous seller told 404 Media that the activity clears inventory while raising questions about the final disposition of rare volumes.
Some online commenters have compared the bulk purchase, digitization, and destruction of physical books to themes in George Orwellâs novel â1984,â in which the government systematically alters historical records and written materials to control the official narrative. In the novel, physical documents are destroyed or rewritten so that only the revised version remains, leaving no independent record of the original text.
No verified guidance from government bodies, library associations, or industry groups advises individuals to purchase hard-copy books or secure personal copies of favorite titles in response to the reported activity. Still, many readers are choosing to buy and keep physical editions of works they value, treating the printed book as a permanent personal record independent of digital systems.
Booksellers have cited the legal precedent established in the Anthropic case as enabling continued acquisition of physical volumes for scanning. Reports indicate the practice extends beyond a single company and includes intermediaries that maintain buyer anonymity.
Provided by Dallas Express
