[Stone Mountain]

People should simply check books like this out of the library, then "keep" them for a very long time.

Besides the legal aspects of this, it won't work. Libraries buy copies of books to replace those that have not been returned. All this will do is increase the sales of these books...

[zook]

I think it usually takes school libraries a long time to replace lost books. First they have to contact you, give you a chance to find the book, blah, blah, blah. By the time the library biddy is ready to replace it, there'll be too much heat for her to do so. So, I'd say it's a good short term solution.