[Xylakant]

When the relevant laws were made, fax machines were purely analog devices, not a scanner attached to a modem. And once fax was legally privileged, it stuck around exactly because it was legally privileged - despite the change in technology.

[derefr]

Again, my question:

> fax machines were purely analog devices, not a scanner attached to a modem

Why would an analog scanner not still be a scanner? I'd call whatever component that's in even the oldest fax machines "a scanner." Even if it is "enitrely analog" (continuous brightness intensity read, like a tape head or record-player stylus) you'd still call the process of converting light from a sensor passing over a document, into electricity, scanning, and you'd still call the component that does that "a scanner." Just like speakers and microphones are still "speakers" and "microphones" whether they're just transducers attached to wires, or have a whole ADC+USB/Bluetooth signal path leading out of them. Am I wrong?

[verall]

Yes, in the same sense that an analog telephone is recording you by translating your voice into electricity. But, at least to me, if it is voice -> electricity on wire -> speaker, it feels much less like recording than saving a buffer of voice in memory, packetizing, and then sending, even if they are both just electricity on a wire.

[LocalH]

Everything has Colour, not just bits