[Strolls]

Originally Posted by DJHARKAVY

What about borrowing it from the library, scanning it and reading it on an ebook reader?

a) How does the author lose out, compared to our borrowing it and reading it on paper?
b) How does this differ from downloading it from the darknet?

If you borrow a book from the library, scan it and reading it on an ebook reader, then it's probably fair use, until you return the book to the library. At that point you would ethically (if you had claimed the fair use "right" to create the ebook) destroy the ebook you created.

The author derives income from the sales of books to the library. If more people borrow a particular title then the library has to buy more copies of it, or borrowers have to wait or do without reading it. Scarcity is a property of physical books. To borrow the book from the library, scan it, return the p-book and retain the e-book - that's piracy no different from a straight darknet download.

Borrowing a book from the library and photocopying it in its entirety is clearly copyright infringement. We just never had a problem with that in the past because it's not cost-effective to photocopy entire books.

Here in the UK it's clearly established in law that you may photocopy so many pages - and no more - for personal use. I forget the number, but it's perhaps a dozen pages. We have had court litigation in instances when, for example, a teacher has made 40 photocopies of 2 or 3 pages of a book to hand out to students, and I believe the publisher has prevailed and received damages for that.

If you buy an e-book from Amazon then that is covered under a license or EULA that you agree to at the time of purchase.

If we're talking about darknet downloads or ebooks you've made yourself then you can't go far wrong (ethically, at least, and in the context of current copyright law) by considering the physical copy of the book as your "license to read it". If you give away your physical copy of the book, you give away your right to read your e-book. If you want to download an e-book off the darkent, then buy a pyhsical copy first, for the "license".

The author "losing out" or "not being paid" for secondhand copies and loans of books I've already covered here and here, and no-one has yet disputed the soundness of those economic arguments.