Textbooks can be downloaded free on Bit Torrent
Posted by humphrey at 07-20-2008 04:58 PM 
Categories: Copyright, Academic, Free Speech, file sharing
Categories: Copyright, Academic, Free Speech, file sharing
Have you seen the price of textbooks lately?
A standard science or history text can run a student well over 100 or even 200 dollars.
Therefore, the Boston Globe's article about students who download textbooks on Bit Torrent comes as no shocker.
Yes, it is illegal, but I think the issue also calls into light why textbooks are so outrageously priced? A hardcover nonfiction NY Times bestseller can usually be had from anywhere between 20 and 40 dollars. Why are textbooks 3 and 4 times that??
Could it be the publishing industry is milking a captive audience?
We live in an age of morphing copyright. A growing handful of novels can now be downloaded in PDF for free from the author's website. Cory Doctorow's Little Brother is but one example.
Do I condemn these students? Partly yes, but at the same time do I shame the publishers that are milking one of the poorer segments of our population? Hell yes.
I admire on teacher in the article who says he has largely abandoned texts for individual articles which he posts on his course site. That may be the future of academic texts.
A standard science or history text can run a student well over 100 or even 200 dollars.
Therefore, the Boston Globe's article about students who download textbooks on Bit Torrent comes as no shocker.
Yes, it is illegal, but I think the issue also calls into light why textbooks are so outrageously priced? A hardcover nonfiction NY Times bestseller can usually be had from anywhere between 20 and 40 dollars. Why are textbooks 3 and 4 times that??
Could it be the publishing industry is milking a captive audience?
We live in an age of morphing copyright. A growing handful of novels can now be downloaded in PDF for free from the author's website. Cory Doctorow's Little Brother is but one example.
Do I condemn these students? Partly yes, but at the same time do I shame the publishers that are milking one of the poorer segments of our population? Hell yes.
I admire on teacher in the article who says he has largely abandoned texts for individual articles which he posts on his course site. That may be the future of academic texts.
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