The point was in your scenario the student doesn't save any money at the end, in both cases they spend $40 to briefly own the book. If they bought it used for

The point was in your scenario the student doesn't save any money at the end, in both cases they spend $40 to briefly own the book. If they bought it used for $120 and sold it back for $80 after use vs buy for $120, photocopy, then sell for $80 it's the same overall outcome. The reason I drew a distinction between school books and others is with some books the infringer might want to keep the photocopied material - I didn't realize we were talking about what is effectively a book exchange anyway (whose profits are the same either way). Where if I bought Twilight, photocopied it and then returned it, that's a lot different than photocopying a math book that I return anyway - that people return so often there's a system designed around it at the campus bookstore. This was never solved by lawyers or trials anyway, it was essentially put on ice by e-books and largely overtaken by the music/film piracy conversation and advent of the internet. Could have been a more interesting article is all!