Overview
- A 404 Media probe that placed an Apple AirTag in a bulk order traced the shipment to Amazon’s Las Vegas processing team known as VGT3 and surfaced worker posts saying staff cut book spines and run pages through high-speed scanners, the reports published Monday, August 17, 2026 showed.
- Amazon gave a brief statement saying it buys books through commercial channels to develop products and services and did not directly deny the basic reporting about deliveries to the Las Vegas site.
- U.S. court records from the Anthropic litigation previously revealed a destructive-scanning program called “Project Panama,” and a federal judge has treated conversion of lawfully bought books into internal digital copies as potentially fair use under American law.
- Independent booksellers report sudden, large anonymous bulk orders routed through marketplaces that mask buyers and often target ISBN-listed, pre-2022 titles that AI developers prize for being high-quality, human-authored text not widely available online.
- The revelations have stoked calls from booksellers, preservationists and some lawmakers for clearer sourcing rules, non-destructive scanning partnerships and regulatory guidance to protect rare or unique physical copies and public cultural heritage.