Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
Except the hard copy is not quite "destroyed" in conversion, even among the chop-and-scan crowd; if the margins are wide enough, the book could be rebound with a comb binding, or hole-punched and placed in a binder. And even if not, the pages could be clipped or rubberbanded, and read carefully.
The "electronic version" is generally several "copies:" initial scans, edited scans, copied into OCR program, exported version, possibly in several filetypes. So it's not a case of "I had one paper copy; now I have one electronic copy." I had one paper copy; now I have a damaged paper copy, a set of 400dpi scans, a set of 400dpi scans deskewed & despeckled, the same scans inside the FineReader program, the text version in the FineReader program, the exported searchable PDF, the exported HTML file, the exported Word doc, the edited RTF doc where I've changed the formatting, and the ePub version created from that. (Hypothetically. I don't believe I've done those exact steps with any one book.)
One of the things copyright activists are fighting for is a legal right to make multiple archive copies during digital processing; right now, it's blurry.
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Easy enough to destroy the paper book (fire?) and the multiple copies of the ebook when you're done with the final epub.
Personally, I'll be in this situation eventually myself for a few paperback books. I'll probably donate the book to the library (they will probably sell it via a fundraising book sale). I can't justify this morally ("What if everyone did this?")...but like Worldwalker, I have a bad reaction to the idea of destroying a book just to destroy it.