Copyright, or wrong? beware...

When | worked in Copyright in the UK in the early 90s, my agency's CEO was in a copy shop and while waiting he saw a staff member making multiple copies of an entire book for a customer. He quietly noted the name of the book, its publisher and the customer for whom the copies were being made and then left. When he got back to the office he informed the publisher of what he saw and asked if they had given permission to the customer. The publisher said no and subsequently sued the copy shop and the customer.

- Birjees Hussain

You see, it's illegal to make multiple copies of any publication without a license or the express permission of the rightsholder, in this case, the publisher, and the author of the book. This comes under the aegis of copyright law which is pretty much universal and applies to everything that is created. The arts, painting, movie making, singing, dancing, writing in any form, even computer programmes, are all subject to copyright protection.