[pfdietz]

The scan doesn't go away, and can be released when the copyright expires.

Oh no, a lump of cellulose is gone. Will no one think of the fibers?

[collinmcnulty]

> can be released when the copyright expires

But it ... won't be? The companies have no motivation to do so. The copyright on lots of these books are surely already expired, so if they wanted to they could be putting these up now. I'm sure internally this is viewed as a corpus of knowledge they have that their competitors do not, so they will not release them unless something forces them to.

[pfdietz]

Yes, without any justification let's assume the worst. This is true good faith arguing.