Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
We're talking slightly at cross-purposes.
There are (at least) three different types of books at archive.org.
1. Scans of public domain books, which are perfectly legal.
2. Copies of copyrighted books which can be loaned. This is what the disputes mentioned previously are concerning.
3. Unregulated uploads of books by third parties. This is where the pirated material is.
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2 is what I was referencing. It's legal to scan. Making those scans available to someone who already has physical copy is the questionable piece. Contrary to the ftoreses post, it's not the same legal point as the idea that a publisher has both the right to sell the ebook and the physical book if the ebook is not explicitly mentioned. This idea is that you have the right to format shift, and thus has the right to download the scan from someone else. I kind of doubt the idea will be upheld if it goes to court, on the other hand, I can understand why no one has taken them to court as well.
The secondary point that I was making was a reference to the original purpose of the google scan project.