Re 1), what's odd is that current ebook pricing makes this an attractive option.

I can imagine a group of 20 students, buying a book, shipping directly from amazon to that company, and getting a copy for a very small fraction of the cost

While that's true, the post you are replying to was basically saying "I can imagine a single person buying a book, shipping directly from amazon to that company, and getting a copy for less than the ebook cost" which I think is a more extreme version of your scenario.

How ridiculous is that?

We live near each other -- according to their website, their business is right next to where I live.

Yet, the address is of a parking lot... (10 E 3rd Street in San Jose). Strange.

printed, sold, shipped to this company, scanned, and then resold

Not resold as physical books, no...since they cut the spine off the book so that they can scan it.

Resold as PDF files? Not by this company, anyway...I don't think that business model will work out legally.

Resold by shady third parties? Maybe.

Copied and bittorrented? Definitely.

> Resold as PDF files? Not by this company, anyway...I don't think that business model will work out legally.

I wonder. If the company holds onto the PDF and just sends out that PDF whenever someone mails in a book already scanned, isn't this the equivalent of those music services which simply make you prove through uploading music that you already have a copy and then give you access to their one stored version of that song? I think this has also been done with DVDs as well. So why not books?

Would be interesting to try sending in a book with notes on the margins, see if they get preserved.

If only this service would have been around in Fermat's time.

I hope not, because books, unlike DVDs and music, can be modified by the readers. What if I want my handwritten notes in the margins also scanned?

Weren't all those music lockers sued into oblivion? If they're smart, this company will take the hint.

You mean like Apple iCloud?

me too, I live very close, so I e-mailed them and asked if I could drop off and then pick up when they are complete. I have a lot of programming books that I could love scanned.

> and then pick up

Would you be okay with them no longer being bound? They saw off the binding so they can use them in a sheetfed scanner.

Yeah I was thinking about it and I am happy to part with most of the books as they are programming books.

How about sending those unwanted programming books here to kenya, as a donation or at a throwaway price? We could do with them.

re 1) it's very convenient for me as often shipping costs more than the book if you don't live in US or UK, not to mention the time factor.