Piracy or Not Piracy and Why

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by Tattncat

First question:
If you have a book in hand, that you own, can you legally obtain a digital copy of that book. Keep in mind that the books content's may or may not be from the Public domain.

Depends on what country you're in. I believe in the US it's legal for you to scan it and make your own digital copy. As far as downloading, whether or not you own a legal copy does not make it legal for the uploader to distribute. It's the distribution that is illegal, not the download. The uploader would need authorization from the copyright holder, which they probably don't have.

However a lot of the content appears to be scans from other people's book collections, many of these appear to be of the 30-40 year old vintage (i.e. Old Harlequins) some of these books made available are current books that can be purchased on Sony, Fictionwise, etc. Under what circumstances can they be downloaded, legally.

Same answer as above. You're thinking about the wrong end of it. If Scribd is not authorized to distribute the copyrighted work, then a violation is occurring, regardless of the status of the downloader. Whether or not the distributor has rights is what determines if copyright is being infringed.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by fugazied

First questions: if it's not public domain, chances are you are breaching copyright laws by transferring it to an electronic medium. Most countries have fair use clauses so you may be able to copy a couple of pages for educational use. If it's public domain, copy away!!

Depends on what country you're in. "Format shifting" for personal use is legal in many places. It's the same thing as buying a CD and ripping MP3s. Obviously, you can't start giving them away though.

[Tattncat]

Wow! Thanks everyone, you've given me much to think about and a possible legal solution, since I would not be disseminating anything I do to others.