[QUOTE=HarryT;80024]That is for you to decide. It's certainly illegal. Whether or not it's unethical is a question that only you can answer. My personal view - and I'm certainly not condoning piracy - is that where an eBook is available commercially, one should purchase it. In cases where no commercial eBook is available, but one has purchased a paper copy of the book, it's down to the moral values of the individual to decide whether any "harm" is done to anyone by downloading that eBook, but don't kid yourself that it's legal - it ain't. "
Transforming a book one owns into an e-book for personal use is not "certainly illegal," according to the research that I have done regarding Fair Use. It looks like it is indeed legal to make an electronic copy of a book you own for Personal Use only. Here is what the SFWA''s elctronic piracy faq (at
www.sfwa.org/epiracy/faq.htm) says about the subject:
"If you own a legitimate copy of the book (paperback, hardback, other electronic format), you could scan the book and make your own electronic copy for your personal use only. Arguably you don't get a free paperback copy when you buy a hardback of a book, so an electronic copy isn't a freebie, but if you make an e-copy for yourself of a book you own, the author is probably not going to have a conniption. But you can't give that e-copy to another person who doesn't own it (unless you give them all your copies, both that physical one plus all electronic ones, so you no longer have any (unless you, for example, had bought another copy -- there are of course convoluted circumstances, but it's common sense at the core: You can't go creating copies for new people)). "
What the SFWA says agrees with what I have read regarding Fair Use. I can't believe you would suggest that a person should go out and BUY an electronic copy of a book they already own- that would be extremely moronic.