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Rare Books Shipment Tracked to Amazon AI Facility Where Books Are Allegedly Scanned and Destroyed (www.ibtimes.co.uk)
submitted 6 days ago by A404@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/privacy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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Amazon is facing fresh scrutiny over the use of physical books for artificial intelligence training after an investigation reportedly tracked a shipment of hard-to-find titles to a company facility in Las Vegas, where workers allegedly cut the bindings from books before scanning their pages and eventually destroying them.

The investigation, reported by 404 Media, involved placing a tracking device inside a book from a large order and following its journey across the United States. The shipment ultimately reached an Amazon facility associated with an operation known as VGT3.

The discovery has raised concerns among booksellers, librarians and readers about what happens to physical books once they are acquired as potential sources of AI training data.

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[-] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Giving it away means there's two copies owned by different people. That's why you have to delete your backups.

Destroying it, accidentally or otherwise, means there's still one copy owned by whoever bought it. That's why you get to keep your backups. What the fuck else do you think a backup is?

A backup is not treated as meaningfully different from the original copy. That's why you're allowed to make one, at all. That's also why you can keep the backup - you still own that copy. Even if you've transferred formats. Which is also explicitly allowed.

[-] bless@lemmy.ml 0 points 5 days ago

A backup is a "break in case of emergency or unforeseen circumstance," a plan-b if you will. The last time I checked, destroying something on purpose is neither accidental nor unforseen.

[-] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 0 points 5 days ago

Legal relevance: nil.

[-] bless@lemmy.ml 0 points 5 days ago

I wasn't aware that I was talking to a lawyer, apologies

[-] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works -1 points 5 days ago

Ah, you're the sort who thinks everyone else has an accent.

The fuck do you think you've been yapping about?

this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2026
251 points (97.0% liked)

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