follow the discussion around this on X, i think just a few minutes of research on this topic / reading past the headline you'll find out that this is pretty much a nothingburger
It is interesting to know! My assumption would be it's technical or scientific publications, maybe things like the Springer back catalog (assuming they've not already licensed these). Some of these are "rare" as in they are essentially published PHD theses with very little in the way of sales / print runs.
Of course I could be wrong and they are destroying 14th century monastic scrolls or out of print Mills & Boon editions.
Why would that be a reasonable assumption? This is so blown out of proportion. The imagery invoked by the narrative is one of huge corporations destroying the final copies of literary treasures. That's just not happening.
I believe that is the rational default assumption, yes. Presumably there is some known list of books that they purchased and ran through these scanning machines. If there are true literary treasures that are genuinely hard to get access to on that list, then I would join the ideological crusade against.
Where is that list so we can be sure? On some internal systems we can't access. So I'd prefer rare books to not be destroyed if there's a risk that it could be the last remaining copy.
Any bookseller worth their salt will ensure that a truly valuable book will not languish on their shelf for 1 minute longer than it takes to find a buyer willing to pay a fair price.
If AI-scanners are somehow bid-sniping bona fide collectors and wealthy aficionados, there may be cause for concern. But that is most certainly not happening here.
How do you have confidence in that? These buyers are reportedly exceptionally non price conscious.
Personally when seeking out rare books with few copies in existance and extremely scarce availability, I have often found listings that have lasted for quite some time. Not all rare books go to auction. You might be thinking only of some extreme of notable works and not a wider spectrum of desired but scarce publications that does indeed exist contrary to your confident assertion.
