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#688070
WolfishMusings
Participant

Chesed,

Here’s a site which indicates that it’s not 100% certain that you can. The money quote:

A possible exception to the above is when a book is out of print and no plans for reprinting are underway. One can argue that in such a case the publisher or author has nothing to lose, for there is no possibility for making a sale. Indeed, some poskim advance the argument that the author is pleased when his work is studied or heard by additional people. A rav should be consulted.

(Source: http://www.torah.org/advanced/weekly-halacha/5760/kisavo.html)

Please note the following facts:

1. Rav Neustadt (the author of the article) makes it clear that permission to copy an out of print book is not universal.

2. He predicates this on a number of assumptions that I do not know to be true:

a. That the author (or the rights-holders) would be happy to have the book distributed.

The author is dead. Perhaps he might not want it further distributed. In addition, although I don’t know who owns the rights, someone does in fact own them — and they might mind.

b. No plans for reprinting.

At the time I do not know if the rights-holders had any plans for reprinting — and, in fact, I still don’t know.

So, in the end, I’ll stick by my “maybe, maybe not.” You might, after all, be correct; but I just don’t know that to be the case for sure.

The Wolf