Consider that it is completely legal to make an audio tape of a CD for personal use (and for personal use only). (If I'm wrong here, someone please point me to a reference. I haven't been able to google up firm proof either way, just this from the EFF.)
I.e. for people to listen to their cds on tape while driving or exercising. So cross-media copying can be fair use.
I'd argue that this is exactly the same thing as
what we're talking about - scanning a book that you did pay for, to have a mobile copy. (The example where you download this copy from a warez site is much more shaky though.)
But that's just my opinion; for all I know, legally things might be different for books (vs. audio and video tape).
Law aside, I also don't think it is morally wrong to make personal (and only personal) electronic copies of a book that you did pay for. (And again, the deal with the warez site is a different matter.) If it was a library book that you just checked out, that would be ethically wrong, and I'm pretty sure it's legally wrong as well.
-- Frag. | [reply] |
Since lazyness is a virtue, I doubt anyone will scan a complete book (and OCR it) if they can get it from some russian warez site. Camel3 has over 1000 pages, if anyone is strong enough to scan & OCR every single page and image, they probably better spent their time earning money so they can buy the bookshelf. Believe it or not but most Perl ORA books are worth buying... :) (*checking ORA stock rate*)
Greetz
Beatnik
... Quidquid perl dictum sit, altum viditur.
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