Is this legal?

I assume that would go under “fair use” copyright law. I’ve printed poems and stories from the internet for classes I’ve taught.

I’m not a lawyer but sounds like this person know the law . . .

https://medium.com/@printerventure/can-an-ebook-be-printed-a-guide-to-printing-digital-books-819ab874a3a8

Also not a lawyer, but I remember reading that many times when we “buy” digital goods, we’re not actually buying the thing. We’re getting a usage license and so the centuries of US law and the common law that preceded it regarding normal purchases don’t apply in some cases. For example, if you buy a virtual outfit for a video game character, and the company decides to turn off the game servers, your “purchase” disappears and you have no legal recourse. All of that’s to say, I don’t know the answer to your question, but it’s possible you haven’t actually bought your books and are merely licensing access to them.

My understanding is that’s it’s legal as long as it’s for personal use & you’re NOT selling or loaning to anyone else.

If they added DRM you cannot. I know some ebooks allow you to print certain pages or a certain percentage but not the whole book.

Other media like video games are quickly going this route. You are not buying a copy but a license to play a digital copy. I always get physical media when I can. Digital storefronts can and do shut down removing your access to content you have purchased. This happened to me when Nintendo shut down the Wii online store.

Physical media can be bought and sold on the used market also.

Selling or otherwise distributing the copies I would not do. For personal use I wouldn’t worry about it, legal or not. Print away.

The way I understand it, you will only be able to get a portion to print. Maybe there is a work around. I’m not talking about the law, I’m just saying the whole book can’t be set go print.

With digital recordings sometimes there is a “copy once” thing, and I would think printing falls under it, but I don’t even know if that applies here.

The DRM rules mentioned above can allow for one copy or multiple copies (the way I understand it) but I think of it mostly as digital to digital. Like a DVR copies a program, but you can’t copy it again.

For personal use I wouldn’t worry about it, but that’s not advice, that’s just how I would look at it. If you lend it out, even for free, that very well might be breaking the law, since there is no way to share an ebook as far as I know.