Quote:
Originally Posted by numtini
And if you get into the whole concept. I've paid for all of them. Is it legal to download them if I already own them? Is a physical book a license for the book or is it the sale of a physical object? Is it legal to chop them apart and scan them myself? If it is, why isn't it legal to download them?
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The first thing you have to look at is... is downloading actually illegal? Copyright is about the right to distribute, not receive. Lots of people (with varying agendas) will try and tell you that it is illegal, but that's not really what most laws say (depending on what countries laws apply to you). That's a whole different topic though.
Beyond that, depending on what country you're in and the relevant laws, it may be perfectly legal to scan books you own for personal use. There's really no difference as far as the user is concerned between scanning vs downloading. It does make a big difference as far as the uploader is concerned though. If you scan your own there is no other party involved. If you download, then the person you download from is committing copyright infringement since they presumably don't have rights to distribute.
Personally, either way I don't think the book owner would have done anything wrong. In the download example though, the person on the other end is most likely breaking the law.