[CyreneOfCyrene]

Incoming ships got searched for books because there was a law in place made by one of the Ptolemies that any ships coming in would be required by law to lend any books on board to the library to make copies. Sometimes, the scribes would keep the original and give the copy back because they would be hard to distinguish.

[indigochill]

Since we can probably assume the copies of these books were made without the consent of the original author or publisher, would that make these pirate ships?

[IIAOPSW]

No, but it would make Alexandria the pirate bay.

[josefx]

> Sometimes, the scribes would keep the original and give the copy back because they would be hard to distinguish.

Copying books back when you had to do everything by hand and doing so fast enough that you could return the book in time? I would expect less "hard to distinguish" and more "barely legible".