Kyobo Rejects 100,000-Book Order Amid AI Copyright Concerns
South Korea’s largest bookstore operator rejected an unusual overseas request for one copy of 100,000 different books after it could not verify the final recipient, intensifying scrutiny of how printed works may be acquired for artificial intelligence training.
Kyobo Book Centre, South Korea’s largest bookstore operator, has rejected an unusual overseas order for 100,000 books after failing to verify who would ultimately receive them, a decision that has drawn attention amid growing concern over the use of copyrighted works to train artificial intelligence systems.
The foreign company that approached Kyobo had no previous transaction history with the retailer. Rather than requesting particular titles or genres, the buyer sought one copy of each of 100,000 different books. The broad scope of the proposed purchase prompted the bookstore to conduct its standard checks on the order’s intended recipient and purpose.
Kyobo said the company placing the order was acting as an intermediary rather than as the final recipient. The retailer was told only that the end user was a data company and that no further information could be disclosed under the terms of the contract. Unable to obtain enough information to complete its verification, Kyobo declined the sale.
A company official said checking the intended use and recipient of large orders is part of Kyobo’s normal procedure and had not previously created a problem. The bookstore plans to continue applying those checks before approving similar transactions.
The case has become significant because the requested selection — a single copy spanning a vast range of subjects — raised concern that the books could be digitized and used as training material for an AI system. Kyobo did not establish that this was the buyer’s purpose, and the identity of the final recipient remains unconfirmed. The circumstances nevertheless underscore the difficulty publishers, booksellers and authors face when assessing bulk purchases in an era of rapidly expanding demand for machine-readable data.
The Korean Publishers Association plans to survey major bookstores, secondhand booksellers and distributors to determine whether other attempts have been made to acquire books in bulk. It also intends to call on the government and National Assembly to strengthen legal protections for book copyrights.
The episode places transparency in data acquisition at the center of Korea’s wider debate over AI development. It also shows how conventional retail screening can become an early checkpoint for copyright concerns when the buyer, final user and planned use of a large collection are not clearly disclosed.