A question to the community: would it be a (legal) problem if I decided to download digital copies of the physical books I already have in my bookshelf? I was thinking on using Anna's Archive for that. Hobby project.

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syntaxers a day ago | parent | next [-]

17 USC 106 gives copyright holders exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute copies; no exemption exists for downloading digital copies because you own the physical book, and fair use (17 USC 107) is unlikely to apply when commercial alternatives exist and you’re copying entire works from unauthorized distributors.

	▲	rodolphoarruda a day ago \| parent [-]
		> you’re copying entire works from unauthorized distributors Yep, this sounds like an issue. So the idea from MP3 early days of "let me download these files as a backup before I lend my CD collection to my cousin" is not a real option.

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probably_wrong a day ago | parent | prev [-]

As far as my extremely poor understanding of the law goes: this depends on where you live but generally you are not allowed to download a digital copy of a physical book you own, but you are allowed to create your own [1].

It may also be worth noting that most jurisdictions are only interested in distribution, not downloading, so the chances of prosecution are slim. A small company you may have heard of called Meta is currently using a similar argument in US court [2].

[1] https://ebooks.stackexchange.com/questions/1111/i-have-a-pri...

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43125840