Publishers seek safeguards over suspected AI book-buying spree

Korean publishers are calling for stronger copyright protections and compensation as bulk book purchase requests suspected of being linked to artificial intelligence (AI) training raise concerns over intellectual property theft.

Publishing groups are investigating suspicious orders and seeking a coordinated response. However, authors and publishers face a fundamental obstacle: they often cannot know for sure whether their books are being used to train AI systems.

Kyobo Book Centre, a bookstore chain in Korea, said on Wednesday that 10 overseas companies, including businesses in the United States and Britain, had approached it since early this year, each seeking only one copy of roughly 100,000 titles.

“Many introduced themselves as book wholesalers,” a Kyobo official was quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency Tuesday. The official added that some denied an AI training purpose but identified data-related companies as the final recipients.

The bookseller declined the request because it could not rule out the use of AI training.

Yes24, another bookstore, also reportedly received an inquiry from a U.S. distributor in late August about buying used books in bulk. The two sides held one meeting, but discussions stopped after the distributor ceased responding.

Last week, the Literature Translation Institute of Korea said it notified Korean authors after identifying 21 of their books on a compensation eligibility list associated with a U.S. copyright settlement involving Anthropic.

The AI company faces a class-action lawsuit by authors over allegations that it illegally downloaded copyrighted works for model training.

In Japan, bulk purchases of secondhand books on philosophy, history and medicine have also fueled suspicions of AI developers acquiring material for scanning.

This week, the Korean Publishers Association has begun surveying bookstores, distributors, secondhand booksellers and publishers about potentially AI-related bulk orders.

An association official said publishing organizations should form a joint body after the survey that will aim at establishing compensation arrangements and legislation.

The Korean Publishers Society, meanwhile, issued an appeal demanding fair compensation when publications are used for AI training. Over 240 publishers and organizations, along with 702 authors, translators and illustrators and publishing professionals, joined the appeal as of Wednesday.

Cho Han-na, head of publisher Prunsoop, said individual rights holders could not effectively confront large overseas technology companies alone.

Publishers also argue they lack information about where AI companies obtain book content and how they use it.

Park Jung-in, a copyright specialist and professor at Duksung Women’s University’s AI DynaInfo institute, said that information gap makes it difficult to negotiate licensing terms or prove suspected infringement.

“The core problem is a structure in which rights exist but are difficult to exercise in practice,” Park said, calling for procedures that would allow rights holders to check the sources and use of training data.