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> The main question is why aren't they leaking it to AA themselves?

How is this a question at all? They’re scanning books because the courts determined that it’s the only way to use that data. They are forbidden from using digital copies found on places like Anna’s Archive. They must acquire and scan the book.

They cannot redistribute the book. The Internet Archive tried that and the courts shut it down. You cannot scan a book and share it without violating copyright law.

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> You cannot scan a book and share it without violating copyright law.

Hence the “leaking” part.

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> The main question is why aren't they leaking it to AA themselves?

Why on earth would they? Ultimate point for these companies is to make a ton of money, obviously they won't shoot themselves in the foot and give away whatever advantage they have, especially not to a free archive which is about doing good in the world, which probably isn't profitable enough for a company to care about.

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Because that’s illegal.
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Exactly. They set up this operation specifically to comply with the letter of copyright law and defend against publisher law suits. “Leaking” to Anna’s Archive is the last thing they’re going to do.
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The illegal part is (or ideally should be) using the books in their training. The morally right action is to make it public afterwards.
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