[murg]

I can make an argument that if you use a scanning service (like 1dollarscan) to convert a physical book to an ebook, that you would have to retain the physical copy to make the electronic copy legal. Otherwise, you don't have a publisher provided copy of the work. It would also be difficult for the copyright holder to prove damages if there is no commercially available ebook available, or the ebook is not for sale in your geo-location.

As to DMCA, and why no one has really gone after the circumvention software in the US: this may open a can of worms, like your First Amendment rights to both the software, and to be able to read the content wherever you want (even on devices for which there is no app) and to move devices (moving all your Amazon content to epub, for instance). In addition to the 1st amendment right to publish content, you have a 1st amendment right to read content.

As to the UK law, the posts have been concentrating on 28B.1.a.ii, almost completely ignoring the big OR at the end of the above clause, 'an individual's own copy of the work, or'. I can take this as 'The making of a copy of a work, other than a computer program, by an individual does not infringe copyright in the work provided that the copy is a copy of the individual’s own copy of the work'. This would pretty much make the scanning service copy legal (you send them a physical book and they convert) as well as your own scans, but may make 'free' sourced versions not legal. 28B.1.a.ii simply allows you to make a copy of the legal copy you've previously made.