digital-preservation
Latest stories covering digital-preservation, with summaries and links to related coverage.
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AI companies destroy physical books – let's scan rare books before it's too late
opinion
3 min read
Anna’s Archive volunteer “u” called for worldwide volunteers to scan and upload physical books, periodicals, rare works, and archival materials to shadow libraries before copies are lost or become inaccessible. The August 5, 2026 guest post says small contributors may receive recognition and lifetime Anna’s Archive membership, while the organization can help cover scanning costs and offer other rewards for large-scale book uploads. The post alleges that several AI companies have bought large quantities of secondhand books through intermediaries, scanned them for training data, and destroyed the originals. It says Anthropic launched a confidential initiative called Project Panama in early 2024, spending tens of millions of dollars to purchase and scan millions of paper books for Claude training before destroying them; the post says the project emerged in a $1.5 billion copyright settlement. The volunteer argues that destruction can prevent competitors from obtaining the same books, reduce legal exposure, and cost less than lossless digitization. The post further claims that AI-generated material has accounted for more than half of newly published internet content since the beginning of 2025, and warns that digital preservation of human-created works is becoming more urgent. It calls for contributions through scanning, purchasing material for scanning, or donations.
Blocking Internet Archive Won't Stop AI, but Will Erase Web's Historical Record
opinion
3 min read
The Internet Archive is the largest digital library, preserving over one trillion archived web pages through its Wayback Machine. Recent actions by publishers to block the Internet Archive threaten the preservation of the web's historical record.
News publishers limit Internet Archive access due to AI scraping concerns
news
9 min read
News publishers are restricting access to the Internet Archive due to concerns over AI scraping of their content. The Internet Archive's crawlers capture webpage snapshots, which are accessible via the Wayback Machine, potentially exposing publishers' material to unauthorized use by AI models.