Photocopying an entire book that is no longer published

[imo]

Would it be a sin to photocopy a book that is no longer published by none? I mean, you can buy an used copy, but you are not giving money to the publisher or the author too, so is it a sin?

 

[Annie]

You are putting a new copy into circulation; that’s where copyright law came into existence.

Centuries ago, a man borrowed a book and wrote the whole thing over into a copy for himself. The owner of the book took him to court, and the judge ruled that just as a calf belongs to the owner of the mother cow, so does the copy belong to the owner of the original volume.

Besides, it would probably be so much easier to buy a used copy than to photocopy the entire book!

 

[Dan123]

It may be old enough for copyright to have expired, if it has, copy away, if not, seek to change the law if you disagree with it, but don’t break it for convenience.

 

[imo]

Not in Brazil, it is very cheap and extremely usual, the photocopy stores do that for you and it is very cheap.

 

[BoskoBadovnic]

If you have a certain book in mind, and if it’s in the public domain, then there’s a small chance that you’ll find it at Project Gutenberg’s website. Here’s a description on its home page:

Project Gutenberg is a library of over 60,000 free eBooks. Choose among free epub and Kindle eBooks, download them or read them online. You will find the world’s great literature here, with focus on older works for which U.S. copyright has expired. Thousands of volunteers digitized and diligently proofread the eBooks, for enjoyment and education.

I dare say that even if you don’t find the book you’re looking for, you’ll be happy to spend hours there just looking around and discovering works you’ll wish you had heard of earlier. Happy browsing!

 

[Annie]

I would not say that law creates morality, but law does create order, and that is very important for a peaceful society.

The Mystery of Capital by (a more recent) Hernando de Soto explains this in a easy-to-read book, which you may be able to get from your library if only through interlibrary loan

 

[Canvas]

Yeah, change a law that I am forced to obey. But really, it is fun to see how Americans treat civil laws almost as a religious dogma. Basically, the civil governments have more power to create sins today than even the Church itself! Any stupid law that a government writes that are not directly against God is treated with a moral imperative to some Catholic Americans. More surprising yet because came from a country where the government allows the genocide of millions of innocent babies. Ok, you will say that this you don’t need to follow, but they are the same heads that agrees with abortions and same sex marriage that create the other laws. I don’t want abortists creating laws that became automatically moral obligations under pain of sinfullness. This is just mind blowing crazy.

Then why did you ask the question?

Copying someone else’s work without paying for it is a form of theft. Period. It probably isn’t grave matter unless you were selling and marketing these bootlegged materials, as the amount of damage is de minimus, but I can see why it would be sinful to some extent regardless of what is legal or not legal in the United States.