Secondhand book sales are booming. Is it because of AI?
Booksellers are reporting mysterious bulk orders. It's thought the books are being used to train AI - and ending up pulped.
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Notable Quotes
"never seen the like of this after 30 years in the second-hand book trade"
— Stuart Manley , Executive
"In some ways it's very nice to sell some of these titles which haven't been sold for many years, but it would be sad if they are ultimately destroyed."
— David Tobin , Executive
"The starting point in the UK is that all these acts of copying - creating the training library and doing the training – require the permission of the copyright owner."
— Professor Emily Hudson , Academic
"Anthropic's use of the authors' books was 'exceedingly transformative' and therefore allowed under US law."
— Judge William Alsup , Other
Key People
All Coverage
Booksellers are reporting mysterious bulk orders. It's thought the books are being used to train AI - and ending up pulped.
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