Amazon scans and destroys books to comply with copyright law

Amazon is scanning and destroying rare books to comply with copyright law, according to a post by Steve Klabnik responding to a 404 Media report. Klabnik argues the reporting fails to acknowledge that Amazon's actions are legally mandated, not an attempt to break the law.

This is a heavily interactive web application, and JavaScript is required. Simple HTML interfaces are possible, but that is not what this is. Post Steve Klabnik steveklabnik.com did:plc:3danwc67lo7obz2fmdg6jxcr @simonwillison.net re: https://simonwillison.net/2026/Aug/17/we-tracked-a-shipment-of-rare-books-it-ended-at-an-amazon-ai-tra/ I'm not sure I agree that it's an "Excellent piece of reporting from 404 Media." when it does not engage at all with the publicly known reasons why they are doing this, and that it's specifically to comply with the law, not break it 2026-08-18T15:23:48.075Z