July 18, 2008
Textbook-Piracy Site Is Now Offline
A Web site featuring hundreds of links to bootleg textbooks has been taken offline. The site, called Textbook Torrents, had been operating since January 2007, but it only came to the attention of textbook publishers after The Chronicle asked them about it. Visitors to the site now see an error message saying “Site Temporarily Unavailable.” The site’s founder, who had previously talked with The Chronicle on the condition that he not be named out of fear of being sued, could not be reached for comment because his e-mail address and Skype accounts are no longer in service.
Before the site was taken down, Pearson Education sent the site a note demanding that 78 of its titles be removed. The founder of the site quickly removed those titles, but he wrote a note on the site saying that he had no plans of shutting down the service.
Representatives from the Association of American Publishers, which has been coordinating an anti-piracy effort on behalf of its members, could not be reached for comment on Friday. So it is unclear whether Textbook Torrent’s absence came as a result of any action by publishers—or whether or not it will return.—Jeffrey R. Young
Posted on Friday July 18, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
Commenting is closed for this article.
Previous: Indiana U.-Purdue U. at Indianapolis Trumpets Database of Policy Research
Next: Harvard Professor and Software Developer Build Disease-Tracking Web Site
Oh, it’ll be back soon enough.
— Stoney Jul 18, 04:34 PM #
Yep, after all, remember that Napster got shut down…
— Jeff McNeill Jul 18, 04:57 PM #
The textbook industry has treated its student-customers with little respect over the years, with market strategies designed to maximize profits at the expense of students. They sowed the fields, now let them reap their rewards.
— Jon Jul 19, 03:55 PM #
I am in agreement with Jon on this one.
— C. Ubing Jul 21, 12:06 PM #
If the old site does not put them up anopther will, P to P is hard to stop.
Book torrents out there are probably already available from other sitesIf the pirate bay puts them up good luck taking them down.
— Warren Jul 21, 12:17 PM #
It’s time that faculty, students and campus bookstores demand that a free market (that protects copyrights) be established in textbooks.
For lack of meaningful new content, textbooks have become bloated with “features” as a pretext to release new editions that offer almost no value add over the last one.
If publishers can sell most leading titles in a $10 paperback edition in Asia, they can surely market a $25 paperback edition in the United States.
As for me, I’m sticking with older but recent editions and told our bookstore that if they refuse to order these used books, then I will. If they refuse to sell the used books I order at a reasonable markup, then I will—at no markup.
It’s win-win. I’m stuck with less needless re-preping of my courses (to accommodate needless edition changes) and my students get books at $20-$40 instead of $125-$140 new.
Students WANT to do business with the campus bookstore—rather than online—in order to have them billed to their financial aid/student account.
The good news is that students are not about to “undiscover” online textbooks, and bookstores will continue to lose market share as long as they keep supporting the hood-n-wink new text book racket with the publishers.
— Mark Jul 21, 12:50 PM #
How is that students object to textbook prices but don’t protest paying $95 to attend a rock concert by one of their favorite groups? Shouldn’t they be demanding “free” concerts from the musicians, too? Oh, I forgot, they are already stealing their music through P2P sites….
— Sandy Thatcher Jul 21, 02:09 PM #
What a beautiful generalization. Clearly, all students buy $95 concert tickets, and all students download textbooks. Wonderful.
For the record, the most I’ve ever paid for a concert in my life is $40, and that was once. I don’t think I could even find a $95 concert ticket here.
Next time, try contributing something useful.
— Craig Jul 23, 03:24 AM #
stoney, when where and what can we do in the meantime?
— abubakrs Jul 30, 08:19 AM #
Forgive that one student who spent his hard earned money on one treat per year instead of toward $800 worth of textbooks they’ll need for one semester. Can he ever be found it in one’s heart for forgiveness? God forbid he should buy a used textbook or a previous edition textbook.
Furthermore, if this electronic version is such a problem, why are the publishers pushing all of their textbooks to electronic format? Oh wait, thats right, I read in one very popular textbook that, ‘the contents of, or parts thereof, may be reproduced for use with xxxxx … in any form for any other purpose without permission of the publisher.’
Perhaps it seems that they are justifying their actions against individuals for these mistakes. I doubt they would do that, right?
Maybe that’s why there is anti-trust lawsuits against the big ones and also breach of contract for not paying the authors royalties…
— Anom Aug 2, 05:37 PM #
I just find these arguments of ‘theft’ too ridiculous. These people claim to be educators. Perhaps they are educators but at a price. I thought the moral and ethical standards of any educator is to perform their tasks not on the basis of monetary value?
Its laughable that they are pushing to ensure everyone gets a education or access to knowledge yet scream when thats done. I mean, is ’2 + 2 = 4’ copyrightable?
That is why they came up with electronic versions or portable document formats (PDF) files. Don’t they understand that the items are ‘portable documents’ ? Easily transferrable? Furthermore technology exists, much similar to trial software like ’30 day trial period’ to register copies of these electronic documents. Sort of like a electronic UPC code for these items. Why not implement that? Is it too costly? No way.
I noticed in several law bills with the government that they (publishers) are mentioned by name for administering certain educational programs or government-related tests.
What kid is educated on the extensiveness of copyright laws? I mean I see PDFs crazy out there. Should I be concerned over any hyperlink or PDF I see on here? The laws vastly need to be revamped in this digital era. Since electronic copies are easy to send without lifting a finger, the ‘owners’ should make a concious effort to better keep their ‘property’ protected.
Technology exists for it. If they are keeping their property in a easy transferrable methods then why blame the consumer? If you leave a $10 on a table and walk away, people are going to think you are abandoning it. If they are going to send their material online in electronic format without protective measures then they need to reap what they sew. If I throw $100 bills in the streets and expect the police to catch everyone that grabs those bills, well you can imagine how much of a joke that is…
Perhaps the solution to these problems is to rid of these national or international organizations that seem to be made up of mostly lawyers. Can you imagine a world without that? Authors, famous music artists and film makers are already producing, releasing and owning their own materials and making them available on the internet. These huge organizations advice against it… I wonder why…
Anyways, maybe in the future we will educate our people on intellectual property laws, digital creations and protection measures there by making the laws clear, realized and give protection to its users.
— Anom Aug 4, 05:25 PM #