Shield Spell

[Storm Raven]

It's not illegal because I own the books.

Let me assure you, technically it is. Owning a copy of a book does not give you the right to make an additional copy no matter what form that new copy may take. Making copies of documents is the exact thing that copyright law is intended to prevent.

If you want additional copies of a document, you must buy them from the copyright holder (except in a very very limited cases that fall under the rubric of "Fair Use", none of which are implicated here based upon the facts you have given).

Will WotC sue you because of this? Probably not. Could they? Yep. Will they take action if they find out someone has been distributing illegal copies of the PHB in PDF format? Most likely.

 

[Mahali]

Let me assure you, technically it is. Owning a copy of a book does not give you the right to make an additional copy no matter what form that new copy may take. Making copies of documents is the exact thing that copyright law is intended to prevent.

If you want additional copies of a document, you must buy them from the copyright holder (except in a very very limited cases that fall under the rubric of "Fair Use", none of which are implicated here based upon the facts you have given).

I assue you it is legal. Make all the copies you want. One for you car, one for the office, one for your friends house. As long as you're the only one that uses it it's in the "fair use" of a copyright.
Ask in any legal class. The #1 questions asked by students are how to get out of traffic tickets, #2 is usually if the city/state has a "make my day" law, and for the last few years #3 has been about music and copyrights.

 

[Artoomis]

I assue you it is legal. Make all the copies you want. One for you car, one for the office, one for your friends house. As long as you're the only one that uses it it's in the "fair use" of a copyright.
Ask in any legal class. The #1 questions asked by students are how to get out of traffic tickets, #2 is usually if the city/state has a "make my day" law, and for the last few years #3 has been about music and copyrights.

You must be talking about high school student - or undergrad, at the most.

You can take it from me - serious students (as in law school), don't ask such trivial questions as how to get out of traffic tickets. On the other hand, they spend three years of post-graduate studies learning to be able to answer those questions.

 

[Uller]

It is my understanding that fair use is limited to one copy for personal use(as in, you can copy a CD to keep in your car or at the office or whatever for you to use or you can copy a part of a book that you use often so you don't destroy the book due to overuse). It certainly does not apply to posting that copy on the internet for others to download. It also does not allow you to make unlimitted copies, AFAIK.

 

[Artoomis]

You must be talking about high school student - or undergrad, at the most.

You can take it from me - serious students (as in law school), don't ask such trivial questions as how to get out of traffic tickets. On the other hand, they spend three years of post-graduate learning to be able to answer those questions.