SHANGHAI, Aug. 11 -- PEOPLE will always find a way to cheat the system - and sometimes new technology lends a hand.

Shanghai book sellers are concerned that customers are using scanning pens to get around copyright laws.

Offenders visit retail outlets with their scanning pens, "read" books and then bring the contents home to peruse or even copy digital editions online.

And the bookseller is left without a sale.

Book "scanning" is popular among students, especially during the summer holidays. A student can scan up to three novels with a single pen in one morning.

"Even if people scan just for their own reading or research, it still violate the interests of bookstores," said Gu Changsheng, a lawyer at the Shanghai Tian Hong law firm.

"I came here specially to do scanning in order to post the book documents in forums on the Internet and share with my friends," a student recently told Youth Daily, a local newspaper which found him scanning books.

Some students said though the scanning pen costs nearly 1,000 yuan (US$132), they still prefer to buy one because it is easy to conceal and makes buying books a thing of the past.

Retailers believe scanning books is stealing - and the law fraternity agrees.

"Our assistants always stop photo-taking of books, but the invention of the scanning pen has made it hard to stop because it is so small and just like a real pen," said He Qunxing, an official with the Popular Bookmall.

She said the online version provided by scanners might be used to produce pirated books.

A security guard in the Shanghai Bookmall said the staff can help stop the stealing or damaging of books, but the little high-tech pens are a major source of concern.

"We middle-aged rarely even use mobile phones and cannot operate high-tech devices such as MP3 players, so in my eyes, offending customers are just bending down to read books," he reportedly said. "I can't find out what they are really doing."

Lawyers said scanning books violates copyright laws.