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Japanese used bookstores see 5x sales surge as books are being bought by the ton

96 points · 130 comments · speckx

  1. zirkonit · · focus · HN ↗
    Our family volunteers at a nonprofit that moves a huge number of books. We take donations and run massive charity sales, clearing tens of thousands of books a month. Pricing works like a ladder: you try to sell a book for a couple of bucks, then for a dollar, then by the $5 bag, then for free, and you still end up with thousands of books nobody wants even at no cost. These used to go straight to pulp. Now they go to AI labs for scanning. Would we rather they were read, or at least owned, by someone? Yes. Is scanning better than turning them into toilet paper? Yes, even if only marginally.

    I'm sure the Anthropics of the world have shredded the last known copies of plenty of titles. But nobody talks about the last known copies that get pulped every day simply because there are so many books nobody wants and storing them is expensive.

    1. sly010 · · focus · HN ↗
      Well, they could turn the bad faith story into a good faith story by making them available for everyone to download perhaps. (AI companies "saving" old books!) But that would require giving a s*t which they don't and that is the real problem imho.
      1. Aurornis · · focus · HN ↗
        They legally cannot do this.
        1. wareya · · focus · HN ↗
          What I would do is announce that the scans are being preserved and will donated to the library of congress or whatever other institution is legally able to hold onto stuff like this. But that would more directly tie specific companies to the practice of destroying unwanted old books, so nobody's going to do it, or even announce it.
          1. shagie · · focus · HN ↗
            The Library of Congress already has a copy of the book.
            1. wareya · · focus · HN ↗
              The library of congress does not have copies of random japanese books.
              1. shagie · · focus · HN ↗
                That would be National Diet Library <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ndl.go.jp&#x2F;en&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ndl.go.jp&#x2F;en&#x2F;

                <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ndl.go.jp&#x2F;en&#x2F;collect&#x2F;deposit&#x2F;deposit" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ndl.go.jp&#x2F;en&#x2F;collect&#x2F;deposit&#x2F;deposit

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