legally scanned PDFs

[Wystan]

Expect to see a flood of old RPGs on ebay soon Unless someone knows a place I can get a better price?

Yes, but he either plans to Deep Six them or Sell them as shown by the prior quote. This will cause him to be hard pressed to show actual Physical ownership without the originals. I would say to look into a -SMALL- rent a storage if he is really pressed for space, or under bed boxes and such if he has even a little space, closet bottoms and under things make great storage, or even one of these:

Ikea Bookcase

Which make great room Dividers. I have one myself, actually I have 2. They also make a 5x5 version that is simply indispensible.

 

[sckeener]

Oops. I guess I didn't explain enough. I'll buy the pdfs off of legal stores on the internet and then ditch the original on ebay or something to offset the cost of buying the pdf.

If there is no pdf, such as most 3rd/3.5 books, then I will look for legal hard copy books on sale, scan it and then only keep the receipt and the cover/page with the barcode as proof of purchase.

I will not sell the disassembled books. I'm only going to keep the receipt and the barcode...the rest is trash. Who'd want disassembled books anyway? They are a pain to keep together and woe if you lose a page.

 

[Wystan]

Oops. I guess I didn't explain enough. I'll buy the pdfs off of legal stores on the internet and then ditch the original on ebay or something to offset the cost of buying the pdf.

If there is no pdf, such as most 3rd/3.5 books, then I will look for legal hard copy books on sale, scan it and then only keep the receipt and the cover/page with the barcode as proof of purchase.

I will not sell the disassembled books. I'm only going to keep the receipt and the barcode...the rest is trash. Who'd want disassembled books anyway? They are a pain to keep together and woe if you lose a page.

Not that it should ever come up, but even then you will sort of be hard pressed to prove that you did not just sell the book. I would again voice against doing this. Also you will lose most of the usability of the books by doing this as you can no longer just carry that random book with you when you want to go somewhere, you must carry a medium where it is readable and also make backups in case of data loss, thereby making it more accessible and questionable if the issue is ever pressed.

I like the idea, but the implementation is not fully feasible in todays society and tech level. (A book is easier to carry and cheaper to replace if accidentally lost.)

 

[sckeener]

You are legally allowed one backup copy of things you own, however the caveat is you must still own the original.

You must still have proof that you own the original. Hence the whole receipt and barcode issue....

However I just talked to IP lawyer #2 and he basically said nothing other than the receipt will do as long as it shows a link to the purchased material.

Basically that having the original book is not proof of purchase as it could be stolen. Only a receipt will prove proof of purchase.

 

[sckeener]

Also you will lose most of the usability of the books by doing this as you can no longer just carry that random book with you when you want to go somewhere, you must carry a medium where it is readable and also make backups in case of data loss, thereby making it more accessible and questionable if the issue is ever pressed.

I like the idea, but the implementation is not fully feasible in todays society and tech level. (A book is easier to carry and cheaper to replace if accidentally lost.)

I already buy pdfs, so the issue of carrying a medium isn't. Having a laptop at the gaming table makes being a DM easier (see this)

I'll be making the books more useful as I'll be scanning in a 300dpi and then OCRing down to 150dpi. The books will be searchable, copy&paste, and I'll have my entire library at my finger tips.

The questionable issue means that I'll have to keep receipts...very annoying that...but apparently you do not own even the book you are reading unless you have a receipt to show for it....

 

[fiddy]

This is a tangent to the topic, but I hope you've planned to backup the PDFs. It would be a shame to go through all that work and then lose it in a hard drive mishap after disposing of the originals.

 

[sckeener]

This is a tangent to the topic, but I hope you've planned to backup the PDFs. It would be a shame to go through all that work and then lose it in a hard drive mishap after disposing of the originals.

Already doing it. I have two external hard drives (300gb.) I save to one and then backing up to the other...store the backup in a firebox in the closet.

 

[sckeener]

IP attorney #3....agrees with #2, but adds something that I like. He says I can scan in the receipt too....so I'll attach the receipt for newly scanned books to the pdf too....basically create my own watermarked pdfs. I like that.

 

[sckeener]

Yes, but he either plans to Deep Six them or Sell them as shown by the prior quote. This will cause him to be hard pressed to show actual Physical ownership without the originals. I would say to look into a -SMALL- rent a storage if he is really pressed for space, or under bed boxes and such if he has even a little space, closet bottoms and under things make great storage, or even one of these:

Ikea Bookcase

Which make great room Dividers. I have one myself, actually I have 2. They also make a 5x5 version that is simply indispensible.

I guess this is all off topic...Having books under the bed is a difficult way to access them. I've already got over 1200 cubic feet of bookshelves. A good 900 ft cubed is in storage unfortunately the books are not. I've got boxes and boxes of books stacked in my apartment and tiny paths to get from one room to another. The cargo boxes are stacked 3 high and cover the apartment. I've already got the bookshelves filled.

I might have more room for some shelves once I remove some of the boxes in my apartment

back to topic....I just want to reduce my paper products (which is shoot in the foot funny because I am a tree farmer in addition to my day job,) and was hoping someone else had gone through the bother of finding out how to do it legally.

I think the receipt and online pdfs are the only way I'm going to achieve this goal so I hope I helped someone else. Consult an IP attorney is good advice and after talking to 3 myself, I think you'll get the same response...or at least similar. Having a receipt is the only way.

Some things I'm just going to be stuck with...such as AD&D 1st edition Deities and Demigods w/Cthulhu as I don't plan on paying an arm&leg just to get a receipt which means I can't scan it and I won't get rid of it.

 

[JoeBlank]

Yeah, I'm leaning that way. I think my free time is worth more. Scanning is quick...OCRing & taking the pages apart, not so quick.

Expect to see a flood of old RPGs on ebay soon Unless someone knows a place I can get a better price?

You can try the Miniatures Trading & RPG Marketplace forum here on EN World. A lot of folks sell what they can there, and then move the rest to ebay.