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> “Under German law scanning books – regardless of the purpose – would not be permissible and constitute a clear violation of copyright law,”

Excuse me, what?

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German copyright law has no Fair Use. There are copyright exemptions for private or academic use, but commercial use has no such exemption. Books have special protection even according to § 53 (4) b).

And yes, it's the duplication which is illegal, not the publication of them.

[1]: https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/urhg/__53.html

It does not have "Fair Use" directly, but things like parody or commentary are allowed to use portions of copyrighted work. There a quite a few paragraphs detailing exceptions: https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_urhg/englisch_ur...

https://law.stackexchange.com/a/93882

"Individual reproductions of a work by a natural person for private use on any medium are permitted, provided they are not used directly or indirectly for commercial purposes …"

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