http://dx.doi.org/10.59704/1f8f54bcf66a021f https://verfassungsblog.de/ai-is-eating-the-book-world/ AI Is Eating the Book World Lennartz, Jannis eng 2026-07-08 electronic resource text/html ddc:342 AI Artificial Intelligence CDSM Directive Copyright EU InfoSoc Directive Text and Data Mining USA EU USA Verfassungsblog Verfassungsblog--2366-7044 CC BY-SA 4.0 In 2011, Marc Andreessen, a key figure in California’s venture capital scene, coined the phrase: “Software is eating the world.” The phrase describes the spread of software into everyday life and the displacement of physical business models. This process continues in an unexpectedly literal sense: AI companies purchase used books, scan them, and dispose of them to gather input for their models. The reason for this seemingly cumbersome method is the expectation that it will fall under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law.