If you borrow a book from a library or a friend, scan it to a file on your computer and return the book, you've committed a distribution of a copyrighted work w

If you borrow a book from a library or a friend, scan it to a file on your computer and return the book, you've committed a distribution of a copyrighted work without the permission of the copyright holder. If the copyright holder discovered this they could sue you at which point you could attempt to present a Fair Use defense based on the four factors [0]. Assuming it's a whole published book that's available for sale, you'd need a noble use to explain why you didn't just buy a copy to scan for yourself but even if you lose, the damages could be relatively small assuming you didn't distribute the file further. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use#U.S._fair_use_factors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use#U.S._fair_use_factors