The textbooks have to be returned undamaged, and this gives her (1) a paper copy to mark up as needed; and (2) a digitized copy to carry on a tablet or portable computer.

We will gladly destroy both the paper and electronic copies after the school year, when the textbooks are returned. Seriously, she won’t need hs textbooks as references, and we’d like to recycle all that paper to reduce our guilt about destroying the world’s forests, etc.

The only problem I see is if her classmates want her to share her digitized copy. Seems ridiculous to make each student go through the same photocopying/scanning process with their own textbooks, rather than share her e-file, but as I do not know what THEY will do with the e-file, tough luck.

As someone who has worked in the textbook field, I can tell you that you are 95% sure to be violating the Copyright Act–this is especially true if the book actually does have an electronic version available and you are scanning to avoid paying for it, if you are sharing the scan with anyone else, or if the content contains any “3rd party” materials (such as photographs, poetry, short stories, speeches, essays, or fine art because most textbooks are themselves only “leasing” that content from another rights holder, say a short story by Ray Bradbury, and have very explicit rights agreements in place about how that content can be used by both themselves and the end user).
If it is truly a personal copy, it is probably not a big deal and no one will ever care, but once it gets shared (especially in a public way like being placed on a website) then you may find yourself in serious violation of copyright law. Just a word of warning.

Great Law Group
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Christina

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