Civil society groups urge FTC to sue AI firms over physical book destruction
Advocacy groups claim AI companies are buying and destroying physical books to create an anticompetitive data monopoly.
Civil society groups are calling on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to take legal action against AI companies over the physical destruction of books. The groups argue that the practice of buying and destroying literary works to train large language models constitutes an unfair method of competition.
According to a complaint involving the Demand Progress Education Fund, the Consumer Federation of America, and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, AI developers are purchasing, scanning, and then physically destroying books—including rare editions—to feed their training sets. The groups allege that this process is not merely a copyright issue but a systemic effort to "starve the market" of source materials. By removing physical copies from circulation, the groups argue that AI incumbents are creating a data moat that prevents competitors from accessing the same foundational knowledge.
A shift toward antitrust
This regulatory push arrives as AI developers, including Meta and OpenAI, face a wave of copyright lawsuits from authors and publishers. While those legal battles focus on the unauthorized use of intellectual property and the economic viability of writing, this specific appeal to the FTC seeks to pivot the conversation toward antitrust and competition law. The advocates argue that the literal destruction of physical assets to secure a training advantage violates consumer protection and fair competition standards.
Why it matters
If the FTC decides to investigate or sue, it would fundamentally change the legal landscape for generative AI. Rather than fighting a series of fragmented copyright disputes over "fair use," the industry would face a systemic regulatory challenge focused on market dominance and the physical acquisition of data. Such a move could redefine how the government views the "raw materials" of AI, potentially treating the hoarding and destruction of physical texts as a predatory business practice rather than a technical necessity.
What's next
The outcome now depends on whether the FTC views the physical destruction of books as a breach of competition law. While the groups have made their demands clear, it remains to be seen if the commission will launch a formal investigation into the procurement practices of AI firms. For now, the industry continues to grapple with the tension between the massive data requirements of LLMs and the preservation of the physical literary record.