The European Writers Council (EWC) has formally denounced AI tech companies' practice of shredding books to train models. The writers' group is calling on the European Commission, the European Parliament and EU states to take a clear stance, per the EWC's official statement.

The statement cites a September 16, 2026 written answer from European Commission EVP Henna Virkkunen. She said digitizing copyrighted books — even lawfully acquired print copies — requires the rightsholder's prior authorization under EU law, per the EWC.

Internal Anthropic memos from the Bartz v. Anthropic case describe "Project Panama," an initiative to buy, scan destructively and discard millions of print books for Claude training. Anthropic paid a $1.5 billion settlement announced in late August 2025, with final judicial approval on July 20, 2026, per Nutshell Today and ZeroHedge.

An Anthropic spokesman denied that the company buys and destroys rare or antiquarian books, per ZeroHedge. A federal judge ruled that destructive scanning of legally purchased books qualifies as transformative fair use, per ZeroHedge and the f9xr/SynthID write-up.

"Trying to subvert copyright legislation is one thing but destroying our literary cultural heritage is another," the European Writers Council said in its statement.