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In US you would argue fair use while the book publisher would argue that you infringed their copyright by harming the market for that book. Once you scan the book, you no longer have any need to buy it, thus they loose an extra sale. Of course, practically speaking, as long as you don't go around selling your newly scanned copy of said book to all of your classmates, you shouldn't run into any problems.


Couldn't you also argue that borrowing a book at all instead of buying it harms the market for the book?


No. Borrowing a book means that you have it instead of the person that bought it. If you copy it, both can have the book at the same time.


I am not saying that they are the same thing. Just that the same argument applies.


At my university we can just keep the book for the whole semester.. so the students here rarely buy books anyway (except when the library is selling it's old books.. lots of bargains to be had :).




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