WHAT WE KNOW

October 1, 2026 — AI Training & Copyright

A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling in Thomson Reuters v. ROSS Intelligence finding that a particular unlicensed use of copyrighted material to train a competing AI product was not protected by fair use. The decision does not mean all AI training involving copyrighted works is unlawful, but it adds an important development to the rapidly evolving legal landscape surrounding the materials used to train AI.

For the American Book Rescue Project, the issue extends beyond copyright. As physical books are acquired and digitized for AI and data purposes, we believe another question must remain part of the conversation: What happens to the original physical source after it has been scanned?

A digital copy can preserve words. It may not preserve inscriptions, provenance, annotations, physical characteristics, or other evidence that gives an individual book historical significance.

Digitize the words. Preserve the book. Protect the record.

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September 2026 — Japanese Used Books Purchased in Unusual Bulk Quantities

Japanese used-book sellers have reported an unusual surge in large-volume purchases, with some stores receiving orders for hundreds or even more than 1,000 books. Many of the purchases reportedly involve specialized subjects including history, philosophy, medicine, law, politics and Edo-period Japanese culture.

Separate trade records examined by Japanese news organization NTV reportedly show that more than 50 tons of goods identified as Japanese books have been exported to the United States since 2025. The ultimate buyers and intended use of the books have not been publicly established, and there is currently no conclusive evidence that the recent purchases are destined for AI training or destructive scanning. However, documented cases of AI companies purchasing and destructively scanning physical books make the activity worthy of continued scrutiny.

For ABRP, the preservation question remains simple: When books are acquired at this scale, what safeguards exist to identify historically, culturally or individually significant copies before they permanently leave circulation, or are destroyed?

Digitize the words. Preserve the book. Protect the record.

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***Amazon VGT3 / LAS8

5801 Nicco Way, North Las Vegas, NV

Reported destructive-scanning site. A tracked rare-book shipment reached the facility; reporting described large book shipments, binding removal, page cutting, and scans for AI training.

***Datamation Imaging Services

7700 Griffin Way, Suite B, Willowbrook, IL 60527

Confirmed scanning contractor connected to Anthropic™ Project Panama. Reporting and court materials describe books being cut apart, high-speed scanned, and then recycled/disposed.

***ARC Document Solutions - Illinois AIM Center

1425 W. Jeffrey Dr., Addison, IL 60101

High-priority lead. ARC openly markets AI-training-data digitization and OCR/scanning, and a tracked book shipment reached the Addison industrial park. The specific client and what happened to that batch remain unconfirmed.

***BookData.ai

Physical operating location not publicly disclosed

Publicly markets bulk used-book sourcing, targeted selection, digitization, and scanning for AI models. It claims access to 125M+ titles and 30B+ pages. Its destruction practices and named AI customers are not publicly verified.