Any suggestions on content distribution systems for schools?

I’m a research assistant and student in a mexican law faculty and I am working to find a better way to distribute the numerous readings we have through all classes. This year I’ve spent around a hundred dollars just in copies and there is 600 students, at 5 cents the copy imagine the massive waste of paper. I figured out the school could buy an automatic scanner and ask for all the teachers to provide all the readings before, scan and distribute electronically through school. The problem is that some of this content will be copyrighted so it needs to be password protected at least. Does anybody has any experience on this projects? Would like suggestions to be as cheap as possible, free software would be great since school is not for profit.