Kyobo Book Centre, Korea's largest bookstore operator, has drawn attention for rejecting a suspicious order from an overseas company, amid growing concerns that bulk-ordered books could be used as training data for artificial intelligence.
According to a Kyobo Book Center official, the bookstore chain received a request from a foreign company with no prior transaction history to purchase 100,000 books. The buyer proposed purchasing one copy of every book, regardless of subject, instead of specifying titles or genres, the official said.
Kyobo attempted to verify the end recipient’s identity but could not obtain enough information to complete the sale.
“We had to reject the order because the company placing it was not the end recipient. We were told that, beyond identifying the end recipient as a data company, no further information could be provided under the terms of the contract,” the official told The Korea Herald.
The official stated that verifying the intended use and recipient of bulk orders is standard procedure for Kyobo and has not previously been an issue. However, in this case, the company could not obtain clear answers during verification.
“We will continue to verify orders as we always have and proceed with sales accordingly,” the official added.
Meanwhile, the Korean Publishers Association plans to survey major bookstores, secondhand booksellers and distributors to assess attempts to acquire books in bulk. The association plans to urge the government and the National Assembly to strengthen legislation protecting book copyrights.
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