Digital scanning of copyright material

[linuxlad]

Is it illegal or are copyright laws broken for me to scan older independent publisher comic books from my own collection for personal use, or personal backup, storage, and/or safekeeping only (for the sake of digital preservation only if they have never been scanned or digitized by anyone anywhere)?.

They would not be posted, nor shared, nor transferred, nor sold, nor distributed in any form.
These  books are not part of any public domain and permission from the copyright owners has not been requested.

If the answer is either: yes, no, or conditional with certain exceptions and stipulations, then please reference any legal and official sites/documentation that pertain to this query.

Thanks

[John C]

Specific laws, you'll probably need to look up based on where you live.  Very broadly, copyright is a (limited term) monopoly on choosing who can make copies, end of story, so if you don't have explicit permission, you're not allowed.  Historically, companies and the legal system have turned a blind eye to anything that wasn't mass production, but the fact that scanning, uploading, and downloading a document to a private server for your just you creates dozens of copies (on every device it passes through, since that's how transmission happens), companies are more aggressive, if they find out.  However, in the United States, there are some transient carve-outs for backing up software and (if I remember correctly) some other kinds of content.  But for the most part, you'll mostly be relying on not sharing what you scan to mean that companies can't spot that you're infringing on their monopoly.

[linuxlad]

It is not just about the possible direct consequence from the law but the action that author(s) can take by using that law to file a lawsuit against the infringe since the copyright laws protect their work from being duplicated regardless that it is strictly and solely for personal use only(digital backup).

Simply put, regardless to the lack of any implications, stipulations, or consequences, there are no grey areas, no conditions, and no exceptions where the copyright law applies: it is illegal and punishable by law in the U.S. to digitally scan or duplicate copyrighted material (entire book) without the authorized consent and leg@l permission of the author who owns the copyright to that material.

I suspected that this was the case but all my online research resulted to vagueness and inconsistency from several sources including educational institutions as I was not able to find an official site/source that pertained to a clear, irrefutable, and incontrovertible answer to my query.

[Poztron]

Is it illegal or are copyright laws broken for me to scan older independent publisher comic books from my own collection for personal use, or personal backup, storage, and/or safekeeping only (for the sake of digital preservation only if they have never been scanned or digitized by anyone anywhere)?.
They would not be posted, nor shared, nor transferred, nor sold, nor distributed in any form.
These  books are not part of any public domain and permission from the copyright owners has not been requested.
If the answer is either: yes, no, or conditional with certain exceptions and stipulations, then please reference any legal and official sites/documentation that pertain to this query.
Thanks

I'm certainly no expert on these matters, but I thought that there was an exception in the copyright laws that allowed the duplication of copyrighted material (that you already owned) for personal use only. For instance, if you owned a vinyl LP you could dub a tape of the same album, or if you owned a CD by a band you could make a digital copy for your iPod or for playing via your PC. Did that get done away with? Or did it only apply to music?