Rare booksellers and antiquarian book vendors across Australia have expressed growing concern that their inventory may be caught in a supply chain feeding generative AI companies that purchase and destructively scan books.
The concern stems from recent revelations in a U.S. copyright lawsuit against AI company Anthropic, in which unsealed court documents showed the practice of “destructive scanning”—purchasing physical books, removing spines for efficient scanning, then pulping the remains. A judge ruled this constituted “transformative use” under copyright law. Multiple Australian secondhand booksellers report receiving unusual bulk orders from Zoom Books, a Canadian company that describes itself as a book recycler, with purchases appearing price-insensitive and randomly selected from online marketplaces.
Vendors including those operating Good Reading Secondhand Books, Sainsburys Books, and others confirmed receiving waves of orders in May that deviated from normal customer behavior patterns. The orders often included miscellaneous titles—such as obscure soil mechanics manuals paired with cycling histories and local Australian poetry collections—suggesting systematic acquisition rather than typical collector interest. Some items had languished on shelves for decades.
Booksellers expressed divided perspectives on the issue. While some acknowledged that liquidating excess inventory holds certain appeal, particularly for vendors managing hundreds of thousands of books in warehouses, concerns intensified regarding unique or singular copies. Rare booksellers emphasized that certain volumes carry historical and cultural significance beyond their text content, with dust jackets, binding designs, and provenance contributing to their value as artifacts. The destruction of irreplaceable materials represents a qualitatively different concern than processing duplicate mass-market editions.
Zoom Books denied engaging in destructive scanning, stating it acquires secondhand books for resale and responsibly recycles those unsuitable for rehoming, while declining to disclose customer relationships citing confidentiality agreements. Anthropic representatives stated the company sources books from mainstream commercial markets and does not purchase rare or antiquarian materials for destruction, though acknowledged that book sourcing remains standard practice across the AI industry.
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