> It would be if it made the point you think it is. All of this is more and more hand waving. 75 copies in museums? Then I think we’re good.

You're repeating the seller's contextual point, as if it's a counterargument. Do I need to explain to you that what makes the lone surviving 18th century edition important is that there aren't 75 copies of it in museums?

> And lastly, if these books are so important, then don’t sell them, hold onto them, digitize them without destroying them.

It's good to see you agree any digitization of this category of book should be non-destructive.

> If these books are so rare and important, then why has no one cared until now to actually preserve them?

(Lastly for realz this time, eh?) Why has no-one cared to actually preserve the actually preserved book being sold by the bookseller... Bit of a strange question, that.

You are conflating 2 parts of the article to make it say something it's not. No one has put forward any examples of a "lone surviving 18th century edition" being bought up my AI companies and destroyed. That was just an example of "wouldn't it be terrible if", not a "this has actually happened". It's a complete hypothetical, it's a made up scenario, it's a boogeyman. You've hung your entire 2 comments on something that has no evidence of happening.

> It's good to see you agree any digitization of this category of book should be non-destructive.

I don't. Digital or physical, it's the same, there is no difference in my mind. I have many paper books but they are art, not functional, I also have the ebooks which is what I actually read. The _ideas_ are what's important, not a dusty, decaying shell in which the ideas are contained. I wouldn't shed a tear over every library digitizing their books and destroying the physical versions, nothing is lost. More importantly, once you've bought something it's yours, yours to read, yours to display, yours to destroy. On hacker news, of all places, the people fighting _against_ first sale doctrine is appalling.

> Why has no-one cared to actually preserve the actually preserved book being sold by the bookseller... Bit of a strange question, that.

Our definitions probably differ here but preserving is not storing a book, preserving is ensuring that even if this copy is destroyed the ideas inside live on. I think that people that hoard (actually) rare books without a thought or care to making sure the text inside is preserved for future generations out of some desire to simply own something rare are the actually monsters here. And let's dispose with the notion that booksellers are "preserving" books, they are holding inventory, inventory they were happy to sell to Amazon/etc. If AI companies were raiding museums at gunpoint we'd be having a different discussion. They are buying books for sale, if they keep them in a library at corporate or scan and destroy them it makes no difference.