July 1, 2008
Fighting a Textbook-Piracy Site
Textbook Torrents lists more than 5,000 textbooks for free download, employing the same peer-to-peer technology used to illegally download music and movie files. One of its slogans: “Because you can’t download beer.” The site is one of several where copyrighted books are available for unauthorized download.
Publishers say that online textbook publishing is on the rise, as detailed in a free article today in The Chronicle. Publishers and publishing groups now regularly scan the Web looking for book download sites and demanding the files be removed. After The Chronicle started asking publishers about Textbook Torrents last week, Pearson Education sent a request to the site to remove 78 listings of its books. Site administrators quickly complied, and according to an announcement on the site posted today, users will soon have to sign an agreement to follow certain guidelines in order to use the site. —Jeffrey R. Young
Posted on Tuesday July 1, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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First the texts – next the beer! We NEED downloadable beer…or so it seems at 3:30 on a Tuesday….
Seriously – there is little difference between music and texts. Once digitized, they’re easy to move across the Internet. A file is a file is a file. Perhaps a common solution can be found that helps both industries?
— Al Jul 1, 05:30 PM #
Perhaps if the textbooks were not $120 for mediocrity, there would be no need. Once again this is the $6.5bn rapacious textbook publishing industry which thinks it needs protections (via lawyers). Sorry folks, music first, textbooks next.
— Jeff McNeill Jul 1, 05:45 PM #
On a related matter, According to some of my students, there is us website that sells cheap paperback editions of textbooks that are intended for exclusive sale in ``third world’‘ countries to US Students.
— jon Jul 1, 06:34 PM #
Is the use of the word ‘piracy’ a nod to industry PR? I don’t think anyone is boarding boats or trucks and taking booty at gunpoint in this case. I might be a little more sympathetic to publishers if their products were more reflective of the cost of production, and if they softened their rhetoric. The fact is that paying for textbooks has become a major problem for a large proportion of students (a captive consumer audience if ever there was one), and they are responding in an economically rational way.
— Bob P Jul 2, 06:42 AM #
In fact, considering who has the metaphorical gun to his or her head, who could be more fairly described as a pirate—the student who must buy the book, the school that requires it, or the publisher that prices it?
— Bob P Jul 2, 06:45 AM #
From Bob P – “The fact is that paying for textbooks has become a major problem for a large proportion of students (a captive consumer audience if ever there was one), and they are responding in an economically rational way.”
So, you’re saying that if you want something and can’t afford it, go ahead and steal it (take without paying).
No wonder young people have no ethics with models like you.
— PC Jul 2, 08:08 AM #
Two years ago in my doctorate program I had to buy a $120 dollar book on affordability and the rising cost of higher education. Anyone else see the irony there?
Apparently the publisher didn’t.
— John who is not an expert on anything Jul 2, 08:41 AM #
Some of you folks are NUTS! I totally agree with PC.
Textbooks cost too much (sez you!); so does gas, food, cars, etc., etc. In fact, I think the real problem is that workers earn too much money so companies have to raise their prices to afford their workers.
Let’s just have anarchy where nobody pays for anything they deem “too expensive” priced by the “rapacious textbook publishing [or any other] industry”.
There are days that reding these comments makes me worry even more than usual about the future.
— Rob Jul 2, 08:44 AM #
Professors try to get around the textbook requirement by creating course packs, whether they hand them out in class as photocopies, or post them on BlackBoard, or put them on reserve in the library. But still publishers come after them for violating copyright, even when permissions are sought and given.
If the majority of texts are being written by professors, why not self-publish them on the institutions’ web sites?
And maybe less beer would leave more money for books?
— Gretchen Jul 2, 09:07 AM #
Interesting that I’m vilified for pointing out, first, that the ‘piracy’ rhetoric is not actually descriptive of what’s involved, and, second, that the (in my view) unreasonably high prices of many textbooks encourages students to look for alternatives which may or may not be legal. I neither advocate nor encourage anyone to break the law, even though I think the law in this case has been far outdistanced by the technological reality.
Meanwhile, how many professors do you know who routinely sell the evaluation copies of textbooks that are sent to them by publishers? Are you just as exercised about that breach of the (usually) explicit contract that they have with the publisher? And how often do professors consider the retail price of the text before selecting it as a course requirement?
— Bob P Jul 2, 09:45 AM #
Let me be very clear: People who contribute their intellectual work to the world should be richly rewarded, and, personally, I am happy to pay my share for this. The problem is that the current system for doing so doesn’t work very well, and causes the kinds of problems we’re discussing. When it’s almost impossible not to break the law, as is the case today with copyright law, it’s not law-breaking that’s the problem. Under current law, file sharing sites make law-breaking easy, and consistent enforcement almost impossible. Given this reality, wouldn’t it make sense to go back to first principles and try to create a framework where intellectual producers are justly rewarded while the fruits of their work benefit the public to the greatest extent possible?
— Bob P Jul 2, 10:06 AM #
Re: PC’s comment “So, you’re saying that if you want something and can’t afford it, go ahead and steal it (take without paying)./No wonder young people have no ethics with models like you.”
Ethics, huh? Although the commenters you are railing against aren’t really saying that it’s ok to steal, apparently you are claiming that it’s NEVER ok to steal. When dealing with ethical issues, you must consider the universalizability of your claims. It’s sounds like you’re saying that it’s unethical to take something of someone else’s regardless of your own need? What about a poor orphan boy who takes a scrap of bread to feed himself and his starving little sister?
The issue is not as simple as “If student takes book, then student is bad.” It’s a little more complicated than that.
Maybe you’re right. Maybe, in the end, this activity is wrong and illegal. But not on the basis of “don’t you people have any morals?”
— Matthew Thomas Jul 2, 10:29 AM #
As is common for Chronicle comments, many folks posting here don’t understand basic economics and certainly not the basic economics of textbook publishing. How about learning that first, then forming an opinion? Or better yet, having an analysis rather than just an opinion, like we ask of our students.
— Gadzooks Jul 2, 10:34 AM #
So, Gadzooks, would you care to share your analysis?
— Bob P Jul 2, 10:38 AM #
“When it’s almost impossible not to break the law, as is the case today with copyright law, it’s not law-breaking that’s the problem.”
Honest, it WAS almost impossible. I simply HAD to scan in those 800 pages. I had no choice whatsoever. A strange force compelled me to scan the book into a pdf file and post it online. I’m not going to be the one to deny the poor orphan boy and his starving little sister their very own free copy of Intro to Chemistry Principles.
— Middleground Jul 2, 10:49 AM #
To Matthew Thomas:
“Universalizability”? Wow! Is that actually a word? What you are describing is situational ethics. Situational ethics eventually lead to anarchy which leads to chaos. All of this because students don’t want to pay for books?
— Kaybar Jul 2, 11:00 AM #
Faculty CAN do their part to lower textbook costs for students. Submitting your book lists for the upcoming semester on time helps students sell back their textbooks at higher prices and increases the chances that students next semester will be able to purchase used textbooks at a lower cost.
— Millenial Jul 2, 11:07 AM #
Bob P (#11) is right on target! Since this discussion is already drawing similarities between music sharing & text book sharing, it’s a simple no-brainer to point out that the artists (music) or authors (texts) are NOT receiving a fair share of the profits from either enterprise. Instead, it’s the predatory producers/middle-men that suck up >90% of the profits from these sales. So if their immoral, predatory pricing results in fewer $$$ in their pockets because the consumer has found a way to circumvent those leeches on society – tooooo bad.
Dealing strictly with the text book issue, I can’t remember how many times I was forced/coerced as a student to buy a “new edition” that was 99% identical to the “old edition” – except the new one carried an extravegant price. Look at the price of text books and then at thecost of books in general (Barnes & Nobel or Amazon) and try making the case that texts are fairly priced!!!!
Those who use their creativity to produce works SHOULD be compensated for that effort. And those who manufacture those works for dissemination should be FAIRLY compensated for their efforts. For those who prey on clientele who have no recourse but to pay the extravegant prices charged, I have NO SYMPATHY if someone figures out how to subvert that business model.
— Gary Jul 2, 11:11 AM #
PC and Rob,
Yes, you are right. Thou shalt not steal. I just wish that the big corporations
(textbook publishers, big oil companies, etc) that you’re directly or indirectly supporting would hear as well that it is not right to steal. The way textbook publishers jack up their prices on a regular basis amounts to stealing. The way the big oil companies jack up the price of the gas (like they did almost 3 years ago, right after Katrina hit) is also stealing. The way they shamelessly get all kinds of tax breaks and other perks from the government, while they shamelessly make multi-billion dollar quarterly profits is stealing. If these fat cats were honorable citizens and did the right thing, perhaps average joes would do likewise. And, Rob, I don’t know what planet you live & work on, when you say “I think the real problem is that workers earn too much money,” but have
you noticed how much an average educator at a community college makes?
— Jack Jul 2, 11:19 AM #
Most textbooks ARE too expensive. They are priced to what the market will bear,however, and the market will bear much.
Many of the student complaints that I hear are not solely based on the cost of the text, they are that the cost is too high AND the professor barely used the text—the tests all came from his lectures, notes, etc.
A valid point in many, many classes. The reality is that few professors are repulsed at the idea of royalty checks flowing to us from an over-priced, widely adopted, intro course textbook printed, marketed, and sold by predatory printing companies. One can always self-publish one’s text. then store them while one attempts to sell them, and if successful, inventory, deliver, reprint, etc. Most of us have neither the time nor wherewithal to accomplish all of those functions on our own; therefore, the predatory publishers take nearly all the risk and are compensated accordingly. Hate them if you choose, but they know their market and how to control it. That is their primary responsibility.
— Snake Jul 2, 11:30 AM #
Has anyone else noted that an awful lot of the ‘pirated’/‘liberated’ texts online appear to originate with British publishers? There is OUP, CUP and Osprey, for example. Perhaps, as so often, this is about power, and the ambiguity of US copyright law when it comes to foreign publishers. Do I hear Charles Dickens turning in his grave? Ought we to expect a version of American Notes or Martin Chuzzelwitt from a foreign publishing executive?
— Mazvita Jul 2, 02:03 PM #
I have long advised my fellow faculty to be aware of things that raise the cost of a book. When the publisher reps tell you the ancillaries are free and that you should order the package because it won’t cost the student any more, they are only telling half of the truth. Nothing is free. They had to hire the developers to develop the materials. They jack the price of the book to pay for these supplements and then just don’t give a discount for the book alone. The other side of that issue is that when the student goes to sell it back – they can’t. Because the bookstore has to now sell only new copies of the books because that’s the only way they can get the package.
I don’t oppose supplements – if you are planning to use them. A book and workbook together may well be cheaper if the student buys both together rather than separately especially if they can’t buy used. But if the only reason you put that one in the bookstore is because the students might benefit, please let them just buy the book. And if the book alone isn’t cheaper than the combo – then tell the publisher you are going with a different book or you are going without. If you just want the students to have access for their own benefit, then ask the library to carry the book – put it on reserve so that they can find it easily. If your college says that you have to have a book, then advocate to change the policy. My son bought $400 worth of textbooks and used one in his first term at college. The second term – he didn’t buy all of them because he heard through the grapevine that some of his profs didn’t require students to use the book. Since he made the dean’s list both terms, I am inclined to trust his judgment on this.
— M Jul 2, 02:05 PM #
I don’t understand why publishers are being vilified. The highly current and technical information that goes into textbooks takes money to produce. You are paying for a product from a for-profit business. What is the big mystery here?
Also keep in mind, the publishers could probably charge less per user if they were getting a cut of the profits in the resale market. They make zero on used books – the resellers of used books make big bucks just for flipping used books.
— JM Jul 2, 05:25 PM #
Writers deserve compensation. Publishers deserve a fair profit. The “civil disobedience” is wrong and against the law. The pattern of every two or three years publishing a new edition is wrong, but legal. As a prof, I wait until the text has been used a year so there are used copies available to my students. It may be a small thing, but worth doing. Additionally, I use many web-based journal articles and similar academic/ scholarly resources to support learning. Years ago when I lobbied publishers to provide copyrighted and protected ebooks, there was virtually no interest. That could be a major solution—cheap, timely, reasonable profit for those involved while reasonably priced for the student.
— P. Swenson Jul 3, 12:04 AM #
good for him. he’s encouraging innovation by hastening the day when textbook publishers slim down their bloated offerings, save countless resources, and offer more for less through e-publishing strategies. Lord knows that the music industry wouldn’t have ever gone there if not for file-sharing sites that suddenly made iTunes seem like an acceptable business model. The entrenched businesses will never change until they realize they have more to lose by not changing. I already find it easier to scan and distribute articles through PDF rather than paper. I’d surely pay a few cents to publishers for the privilege if they got their act together and came up with an easy model to do so, but no one’s going to stop me from doing it for free until they do. They couldn’t defeat the xerox machine either, and I seem to recall most academic departments having one of those around…
— a Jul 3, 12:49 AM #
Of course the torrent is illegal, but he bring up a question that should have been on everyone’s mind: Why are there printed textbooks at all??
There really is no need, and there is certainly no need to charge outrageous prices that textbooks are priced. The textbook industry exists to subsidize the publishing industry. In 5-10 years, most printed textbooks should disappear, and instead, students get accounts where they can login and view their textbook. Hopefully that will be less expensive in the long run.
— Bob Kosovsky Jul 3, 09:00 AM #
Wow, textbook authors defending the industry – sounds a lot like the cigar chomping music industry types crying over how file sharing has destroyed their business model, and end of year bonuses.
Stealing is stealing, and should not be condoned, but unethical activities, such as professors writing books for their class, and updating them every year or so to prevent any used books being purchased is equally unethical, particularly in the monopoly that this industry holds over the students. Anyone who wants to suggest that the market sets the prices in this industry would have to point out to me where the competition is that is supposed to create this market.
I had a professor of marketing, who wrote his own text book, it was a required class for my major, and a group of the students in my class compared the various editions – I think we had 4 different versions -the primary difference was what appeared to be product placements. Is it possible that this professor was changing the book every other year so that he could keep his advertising revenue stream working along with his monopoly new book revenue?
Just because the theives wear suits or bow ties does not make their activities moral.
— CS D Jul 3, 10:25 AM #
I wholeheartedly agree that if faculty were required to pay for the books they require every semester that they would develop a far better case of empathy for the students and perhaps be more inclined to work on a solution, maybe even one that effectively uses new media.
Prices are high because this particular market is relatively small AND quite captive. Note that it is the instructors who are capturing the market for the publishers. If they didn’t require the texts, the publishers would have to find other ways to incentivize a purchase.
Looks like a classic “long tail” application. While I don’t advocate theft, it is in the publishers’ (and universities’) best interest to rethink their reading materials fee and distribution model.
— jrb@msu Jul 3, 12:01 PM #
Let’s applaud Textbook Torrents for driving down the cost of textbooks – for those who make and distribute unauthorized copies. And for driving up the cost for all of the others who don’t engage in illegal activity.
— Bill Jul 5, 11:38 AM #
Are publishers greedy, or slow to adjust to changing conditions? Is pirating textbooks civil disobedience or theft? We all have opinions (I have mine – the latter in both cases). In the end, though, opinions may be less important than a simple fact – the train has left the station and it isn’t going back. We are witnessing an act of rebellion, motivated by real anger, and the publishers can’t threaten or litigate away.
It’s time to try something new. It is possible to harness new technologies and smart business models to provide a market-based solution. That’s what we are doing at Flat World Knowledge (www.flatworldknowledge.com). We left careers at Prentice Hall to try a fresh approach that provides value to students (free textbooks online and low cost choices of other formats like print-on-demand, audio, etc), value to faculty (books by top scholars in their field distributed under an open license on an open platform so faculty can modify them if they wish), value to authors (who are compensated on sales – they can earn at least comparable royalties under our model) and value to us (if we provide value then we can capture value in return and be profitable).
Consumers have demonstrated that they will buy DRM-free solutions if they are treated with dignity and respect. Our model is built on this cornerstone. Will it work? Rather than opine about it, we’ll just do it, and we’ll let the market decide.
— Eric Frank Jul 7, 10:12 AM #
Why make unauthorized copies? Publishers announced providing all of their materials in electronic formats. Since they are so concerned about their material being distributed why are they converting to an electronic format? Also, they are not implementing technology-enabling features that will control such material.
You need to treat digital items as if they are individual books. If the publishers (or MPAA and RIAA) have the ability to produce infinity copies at once the cost, for distribution purposes, they need understand that ANYONE can.
Furthermore, such disclaimers in McGraw-Hill books as, “The contents of, or parts thereof, may be reproduced for use with [textbook name] … in any form for any other purpose without permission of the publisher.”
Don’t help their cause at all… So I guess it isn’t really unauthorized distribution if thats in there…
Lastly, some authors are suing a publisher to get royalities they haven’t recieved from them.
— Todd Pinksky Aug 4, 11:48 PM #