I’m opening a bookshop that sells physical books. I have a machine that scans physical books and converts them into digital books. If a customer buys a physical book but wants to get a digital version for free, he can give me his physical book, which I store in my shop, and I can give him the digital version, but if the customer wants to get the physical version of his book, I have to take back his digital version. The only transaction the customer has to make is to buy the physical book, whereas nowadays, physical books are sold separately from their digital versions. Does my bookshop comply with the law?
It’s a nobel concept but it definitely doesn’t sound legal. You can’t just give away free copies of books that the authors are still getting royalties/payments for. You’re basically just stealing from the original author or their families at that point even if you’re not getting paid for it. You can’t just redistribute someone’s intellectual property without compensating them or having some kind of agreement. What your describing just sounds like a file torrent on a pirating site lol