It's the people in the middle who pay. The rich move their money out of reach, the poor get their taxes refunded through the tax system, and those in between get their extremities squeezed for more cash.

I learned many years ago that where there's money, authorities will eventually find a way of getting their hands on it. - At least where we 'little people' are concerned.

I'm sure governments will (eventually) twig onto the money making opportunities.

It's a dirty trick, Lex, but it's legal.

On the flip side, it's also legal to use AI to write your book for you and claim the royalties. - For now!

An underhand way of obtaining books & getting round copyright laws. There's also implications for people just 'googling' information, and not using their brains to find information/work things out (ie dumbing down): https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16088549/The-modern-book-burners-tech-giants-buying-thousands-second-hand-books-destroy-FRED-KELLY.html