Hey, I just got gifted a brand new Amazon Kindle, however, hardly and of my textbooks are in ebook format! I own them already so is there a legal issue with me scanning them in just to use on the kindle? I guess its the same as ripping a CD onto MP3, but it does seem annoying that I have to do this. Regards.
Scanning for your personal use will not be a big problem, but do no put them up on web for commercial purpose.
Technically in the UK it would be breach of copyright, as ripping your CDs to MP3s is. Assuming however you are keeping the books (and not selling them/ giving them away after scanning) and aren't distributing your scans to others then you would be exceptionally unlucky to be caught let alone prosecuted. If you did dispose of the books then in theory you would have to delete the scan of it too.
You've become cautious in your old age. Back in 2006 you were much bolder. http://www.opensc.ws/trojan-malware-samples/1023-lets-unite-create-rat.html#post7104
Check out the pricing on the ebooks, and decide if you'd rather spend the money or your time scanning the books (with the inevitable OCR errors that will creep in). I think that you might decide to buy the e-books after all.