Copyright Question

[Fr. Antony Maria OSB]

A few months ago I was writing my thesis. One of the books that I checked out of the library to use on my thesis, and which was central to it, came due at the library, but I couldn't renew it because someone else placed a hold on it and it wouldn't be due back until long after my thesis was due. I checked to see if I could buy it on Amazon, but the cheapest one at the time was $200.00, and other sites also were selling it for $200.00, so I could not buy it. Because of these circumstances, I copied the entire book so that I could use it in my thesis and returned the library book. Now that my thesis is complete, should I shread the copy that I made? It is a very good book, and one which I would love to keep revisiting many times in the years ahead, but I don't know if it would be moral to do so since I didn't pay for it and it is still copyrighted (it was orignially published abroad in the 1940's). Thoughts?

[CatherineM]

I'm not sure how it works where you live or where the book was printed, but here we have what is called Access Copyright. It pays authors a certain amount of money every year to cover photocopying of their books and articles. It is paid by libraries and universities for the most part. It's one of the things your exorbitant school fees go to every year.

If you paid for the photocopying, if you aren't planning to resell it, and you copied it for a legitimate research project, I think it is okay to keep it.