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If I legally purchased a PDF book, is it legal for me to make multiple digital copies and store them away for archival purposes? I am not distributing them or using them for any commercial purposes.

Clark
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    depends on where you are and how it was distributed (physical media, digital, etc), and we don't give legal advise here for good reason. we are techies, and at least mostly not lawyers. and no decent lawyer would answer that question definitively base on what is present here. – Frank Thomas Sep 20 '22 at 20:19
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    Don’t worry about it. You should be fine. In general, you can always make backup copies of any media you purchased. The only time copyright becomes an issue is if you try to sell or distribute the copies. That is the breaking of copyright. – Giacomo1968 Sep 20 '22 at 20:23
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    @Giacomo1968, that is true of physical media in the US due to the First Sale Doctrine, but is not true of digitally distributed material unless the license grant specifically allows it. when you buy media, they are Selling you that media and its fully yours (though its contents are usually still encumbered). when you buy digitial products they are granting you a license to something under their TOS. – Frank Thomas Sep 20 '22 at 20:26
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    @FrankThomas Fair enough. – Giacomo1968 Sep 20 '22 at 20:27
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    @Giacomo1968 - In the USA, the laws have been written in such a way that while you can make those duplicates, you cannot remove or bypass any DRM that might exist on the file. The laws are more subtle and nuanced than that explanation. So, for example, you can copy the file iTunes to the movie you downloaded and purchased, but you cannot (legally), remove any DRM iTunes might use. So in the author's case, if the PDF is protected in some capacity, then that protection must remain. If that protection prevents the file from being used the way the author wants then the file cannot be copied. – Ramhound Sep 20 '22 at 23:37

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Assuming you are in United States, yeppers, according to federal law you are able backup files you have purchased under the "fair use" concept. You are allowed to make copies for "archival purposes".

Like other people have said other places though, you should only be using one version of the material at a time.

Calibre basically does this every time you "add a book" to your library (it actually creates a new file, not move the original one).

This is not legal advice though, and would recommend looking up some more info here: https://www.copyright.gov/

Erick W
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  • Keep in mind, Fair Use is an "Affirmative Defense" in practical copyright law, so its an exception granted to an act that would otherwise be a violation of the law. unless there is clear and binding precedent that matches the characteristics of the case very closely, it won't help you until you are actually in a court room. – Frank Thomas Sep 20 '22 at 21:25