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Federal law: The fair use exemption of copyright law (within the US) states that you are allowed to make a backup copy for private and personal use. It doesn't matter if it is a paper book that you put on a copier and make copies of all the pages or digital file.
Civil law: DMCA states you cannot bypass, defeat or others get around copyright protection schemes.
That is part of the problem right now, we have conflicting laws, federal law permits it, civil law does not. So you are legally allowed to do it, but if someone finds out you are, then they can sue you in civil courts.
That is the same as you are allowed to walk across a neighbors lawn by federal and state land use laws, but if they choose, the neighbor can sue in civil court for trespassing.
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