Textbook piracy poses a problem for publishers and students
By Susan Wilson
Back in the mid eighties, I represented a college text book company selling textbooks to colleges in South Carolina, Georgia, and North Carolina. Achieving my preset goal was based on the number of books purchased by the schools.
Barnes and Noble reps would scour college campuses buying review copies from professors and then selling them at three quarters the price of the new ones to colleges. Frequently, orders were filled with complementary copies sent to professors meaning that my company and I never saw a penny from those sales.
For the publishers who had spent thousands on the development, writing, production and printing of the books, it was a nightmare. Books had previously been revised every four years to include updates and new information. When used books escalated to big business rather than a sale between students, publishers had to scramble to find a way of making textbook publishing profitable.
Formerly, the costs plus profit had been spread over four years. With the centralization of used books for sale to colleges through outlets like Barnes and Noble, publishers were no longer able to make money after the first two years. Thus revised versions were coming out every two years, sometimes with minimal changes.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, textbooks are being scanned and sold on line by pirates using bit torrent sites and Scribd. Publishers are combing the web for illegal copies and issuing take down notices on a daily basis.
Having seen how effectively this has worked for the music industry, taking this approach is not going to work. So where does that leave publishers?
Electronic versions of textbooks can be legally bought from legitimate websites like MobiPocket or chapters rented online on sites like Safari Books Online, by O’Reilly Media, just like music can be legally bought from a variety of sites online. Pirates aren’t interested in purchasing legal copies of either their music or their textbooks.
It was suggested in the Chronicle of Higher Education that publishers may have to start revising books every semester or quarter with at least superficial changes. Even going to two year revisions was difficult since most college textbooks are written by professors who have other duties like teaching. Constant revisions would require them to focus solely on their textbook revisions over all else. No professor wants to do that.
For students, this may mean higher prices since publishing is a for profit business. Publishers of college textbooks pay for more than just the author, editing and printing. Publishers pay other professors to evaluate and edit the textbooks to make sure that they are the most accurate and up to date as possible at the time of printing.
If constant revisions are going to take place to cover the lost revenues of pirated textbooks, students will inevitably wind up paying more for the books that they use. This price of textbooks is already one of the highest costs for college students after tuition.
Ultimately, some new business model is going to have to be developed by the music, movie, and publishing industries to keep them profitable. Piracy is not going to disappear and the current methods of dealing with it aren’t working.
Unfortunately, piracy is seen as more and more acceptable by younger generations. The outlandish remarks of music and movie industry officials, such as the recording industry attorney who claimed that downloading copies of legally purchased music onto a CD or mp3 player was a form of stealing, only reinforces the idea that these industries are greedy self serving megalomaniacs.
What is the answer? I’m not sure, but I am positive that better business minds that mine are working hard on the problem.
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July 1st, 2008
Well, maybe publishers and resellers should simply stop charging outrageous prices for text books. Over here it’s a nightmare, 200 euros barley get you anywhere near what materials you are forced to buy (not to mention the teacher’s material you have to buy).
July 2nd, 2008
I agree, back in the Philippines where textbooks would cost an arm and a leg for most households, the photocopier has become a Godsend back when there was no Internet. Now that there is students can now advance without having to worry about skipping their meals just to meet their academic requirements. It’s definitely high time for publishers to think of ways to offset cost in publishing their stuff for a fair price, especially to the students who cannot afford a bone fide copy for their product. I know that the publishers would also need to make a living. But there are times one has to wonder if what their doing is just to line their pockets.
July 2nd, 2008
I feel sorry for you, I believe you been completely brainwashed by the publishing industry. Their tactics existed well in the 1970’s were the price of textbooks was a big problem, if you honestly believe its all piracy then you got to be seriously joking. Textbook torrents or even textbook piracy doesn’t come around a lot, there are very few sites out there that barely have any textbooks at all. No one is going to stand there scanning in 200-300 page book and considering other books as well. So give it a rest and do some research before you start writing out biased and completely uninformed blogs.
July 2nd, 2008
I know that piracy is pretty rampant and more and more people are going to that as a source of content needs. However, I think the majority of people still want to buy legitimate copies of music, textbooks, and other materials. But we want to get them at a value that seems reasonable to us. Putting DRM on it, jacking up the prices, or making it difficult to obtain isn’t helping anyone and its probably driving these people to piracy. A lot of my friends buy international versions of textbooks because they cost a LOT less money.
I heard in a recent Buzz-Out-Loud podcast that schools like Princeton, Yale, Oxford, and UC Berkeley are creating textbooks for the Kindle.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9979179-7.html
Maybe this is the answer we’re looking for. Would I buy an electronic version of my Physics book that I can put on my Kindle and expires at the end of the semester (or I can buy and keep) for a fraction of the cost? Heck yea! Plus it would cost less to produce and distribute.
July 2nd, 2008
safari.oreilly.com is a great economical way of dealing with that issue. I pay one fee and I can access anything I want.
July 3rd, 2008
Piracy of textbooks is great: it allows people to learn for free, often those denied by geography, mobility, age, or other limiting factors.
The question is: is it all about money, or is it about letting people achieve their potentials? I think I know where you stand, at least.
July 18th, 2008
I’m sorry, but making minor changes to a textbook and publishing it as a new edition to make things profitable just seems to be the wrong way to tackle this problem.
Maybe the publishers should see that paying upwards of 150+ for a textbook that I will be using for just a few months(like most of mine, with the exception of a few books) x the number of classes I take (4-6) is just too much money.
An extreme example, imagine paying the price of a car for just getting a ride in a taxi. The price doesn’t fit! It doesn’t take long before students figure out that instead of paying twice as much in school stores that they can get it for half or even less for something a used book, WHICH IS JUST AS GOOD!
August 9th, 2008
Don’t you bad mouth those honest publishers like that. Yes, its true they are suing college students. Yes, its true they did sue a college kid and got a judgement against him (www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-301452,newsId-2322.html ) but that was after he telephoned their attorneys to work out a settlement.
In addition, yes they did sue another college student. In Pearson Education, John Wiley & Sons, Cengage Learning, Mcgraw-Hill v. Shi, they argued that the defendant (a Missouri student) allegedly sold homework assignments. Folks, you can’t sell your homework assignments. It also makes an excellent excuse for not turning your homework in on time. You can say you didn’t have permission from the publisher to create a derivative work.
Here’s another lawsuit from a student all the way back in 2005. Hmm, I think I’m seeing a trend here. Check out http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y05/m04/i25/s02.
In my opinion, it seems typical of the publishers to offer a cease and then demand money. Some of these students online write stories, thinking that the publishers like to go into litigation, thereby making the minimal amount to settle in the five-figure range.
So in regards to a new business model, I think they may have found it. Considering majority (if not ALL) of these cases are filed in the Southern District of New York and majority (if not ALL) are filed by the 2-lawyer law firm of William Dunnegan , LLC.
Considering all of their publications are now in electronic format and that some of their texts (prior to 2000) give permission to copy into electronic format, I think something smells fishy.
By the way, John Wiley’s Legal Director Roy Kaufman and their outside counsel at Dunnegan, LLC both went to law school at the same time.
Isn’t it odd that YOU, the consumer, have heard absolutely nothing about these cases? 12 cases this year alone.
November 19th, 2009
it is very strange…i sent msg regarding pirated ebook copies but they dont want to answer anything…..publisher enjoy ebook piracy indirectly…mostly all ebooks are now available on gigapedia and increasing day by day…..nobody have answer and rapidshare and ifile are biggest sites for handding illegal ebooks…..every day new site open with some new pirated content….why they want to be in public light? why they giving ebooks free? why publishers dont take action since many years?
nobody knows answer….