Posted by darccio 7 hours ago
Which is really why the outrage cycle over Anthropic's actions is largely misplaced.
And about what topic have I heard more complaints in the last 15 years (although the latter topic is just a few months old)?
Why is that?
If you say that I'm indeed wrong, and the latter one IS indeed much more important, then please tell me why? What is wrong with me then?
How is this a question at all? They’re scanning books because the courts determined that it’s the only way to use that data. They are forbidden from using digital copies found on places like Anna’s Archive. They must acquire and scan the book.
They cannot redistribute the book. The Internet Archive tried that and the courts shut it down. You cannot scan a book and share it without violating copyright law.
Hence the “leaking” part.
Why on earth would they? Ultimate point for these companies is to make a ton of money, obviously they won't shoot themselves in the foot and give away whatever advantage they have, especially not to a free archive which is about doing good in the world, which probably isn't profitable enough for a company to care about.
https://old.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/1vszifd/what_...
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49383026
The big thing here is: libraries and the book trade destroy millions of books every year. If you clean your attic out, box up all your old books, and bring them to your local library donation box, they'll quickly sort through it for things that might actually circulate, and the rest go right to the recycling center.
A lot of people in these comment threads seem not to understand that destruction is part of the natural lifecycle of a book. Books generally don't get preserved.
And then there's the problem that the original reporting that kicked all this off, at 404, is specific about what is meant by "rare books". It's not, as they say, first editions of Oliver Twist. Rather, these are books nobody cares about; that's what makes them rare in the first place. Vanity press stuff, or manuals for old equipment that isn't produced anymore. All these books would naturally end up a dumpster.