I was on the site scribd.com and I noticed that some users uploaded books I use in my college courses. (wish I knew).

If I made a site where I was just a "host", and students uploaded scans or pdfs of books. Then wouldn't I be protected by some law? What If I paid students to upload scans/pdfs?

It's such bs that bookmakers can change 1 tiny thing in their existing books to make a new edition and force students to buy it. A lot of books have no resale value.

You are violating copyright by allowing students to download the material. How you got the material is irrelevant.

I tried this already on a mega scale as a startup. Not gona work...You have notehall on one hand and FBI cracking on illegal uploads on another, it's just not +EV in the long run (I was out of USA jurisdiction so a lack of law enforcement was a major factor for me)
...wish I didn't waste time on this...

You'd be protected just like this guy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Dotcom

Cannot believe the stupidity of some people on here.