6 ms·

'Price gouging from Covid': student ebooks costing up to 500% more than in print

55 points by viburnum 6y ago

siruncledrew 6y ago
I remember the costs for science/engineering textbooks at university were absolutely outrageous. On top of paying tuition in the thousands, textbooks could easily cost >$100/piece, and sometimes 1-3 textbooks would be required per course. And the professors would make us purchase the books they wrote, which cost a lot of money. For a group of students with limited-no income, usually that would mean resorting to torrenting PDFs, pooling money to buy a single textbook and make copies, or looking for international copies.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- tartoran 6y ago
  If the books were decently priced nobody would resort to pirating, except for the very few who have the know how and who wouldn’t think that it’s not the right thing to do. But since most students don’t have an income and the books are priced so high they’re all are forced to find an alternative, that alternative being pirating if used books aren’t available. Back when I was in college I was always buying used books and was selling them afterwards. But the industry realized that and they started pumping out new editions more often. Books pirating wasn’t a think back then. I really have no idea what the situation is right now, are a lot of students workng off pirated pdfs?
  - somethingsome 6y ago
    The situation is worse than ever in my opinion, there are very few used books and they cost as much as the new ones or more. The new books from previously well respected editions (eg Springer GMT) are now 'print on demand' directly by resellers, that means longer time to receive the books and often a very bad binding which last only a few years before falling apart. Of course they kept the same price.
- StanislavPetrov 6y ago
  >I remember the costs for science/engineering textbooks at university were absolutely outrageous. It wasn't limited to science and engineering. I remember in the 1990s being forced, as a poor student, to shell out almost $200 for a ~60 page book of poems written by the course professor (a book we barely used in the class).
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
webmobdev 6y ago
Makes me glad to be an indian - our courts have ruled that photo-copying parts of textbooks is "fair use" under copyright laws (for academics only)! - Photocopying allowed under law for educational use: Delhi HC - ‘No restriction on how much text can be photocopied as long as syllabus justifies it’: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/delhi-university-photocopying-allowed-under-law-for-educational-use-delhi-hc-4419580/ https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/delhi-univers... - While dismissing a plea by international publishers, a recent judgment from the Delhi High Court holds that photocopying portions of text books is a legitimate exercise if carried out for academic purposes: https://www.indialegallive.com/cover-story-articles/il-feature-news/photocopying-isnt-copyright-violation/ https://www.indialegallive.com/cover-story-articles/il-featu... - Photocopying Textbooks Is Fair Use In India: Western Publishers Withdraw Copyright Suit Against Delhi University: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170309/07340536878/photocopying-textbooks-is-fair-use-india-western-publishers-withdraw-copyright-suit-against-delhi-university.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170309/07340536878/photo...
anonuser123456 6y ago
Headline is misleading. The prices are for libraries, not students. One might expect a perpetual ‘for let’ license to be different than a physical book. Books have a finite lifespan.
- fjfksnfbr 6y ago
  The oldest book on my shelf is 150 years old. What's the shelf life for the eBook?
  - anonuser123456 6y ago
    Library books don’t just sit on shelves?
MichaelMoser123 6y ago
genlib to the rescue! Where would i be without genlib...
st0neyeye 6y ago
Article name is misleading, this is just another front where monopolistic influence and education meet. Overall this is not surprising and has been happening for a long while in other areas, ever since near no risk loans for student education financing became the norm, prices have been marked up based on the expected projected revenue from these almost guaranteed loans. Its been known for awhile that most of these engineering books have only nominal changes in problem sets, and material between editions and this predatory behavior has continued unabated for at least 20 years. No one in a position to influence the outcome has been willing to make changes for the benefit of the students. Much of the engineering principles taught in classes at this level have not changed for almost a hundred years so requiring a new edition of a book that is tied to a online subscription (as many are now) is simply predatory and monopolistic. I've known some professors that have tenure that have bucked the trend and written their own books charging only the cost without copyright, but this is more the exception than the norm and engineering/science has a higher bar when it comes to due diligence with regard to materials.
Farfignoggen 6y ago
College Textbooks the eternal Scam, Rearrange a few chapters and Voilà new edition and no used textbook savings. I had a professor in college that used to rearrange his course syllabus to reorder the chapters in a manner that would defeat the simple rearrangement of content by the textbook publishers and allow the students the choice of using older editions that were the very much more affordable solution!

55 points by viburnum 6y ago

I remember the costs for science/engineering textbooks at university were absolutely outrageous. On top of paying tuition in the thousands, textbooks could easily cost >$100/piece, and sometimes 1-3 textbooks would be required per course. And the professors would make us purchase the books they wrote, which cost a lot of money. For a group of students with limited-no income, usually that would mean resorting to torrenting PDFs, pooling money to buy a single textbook and make copies, or looking for international copies.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
tartoran 6y ago
If the books were decently priced nobody would resort to pirating, except for the very few who have the know how and who wouldn’t think that it’s not the right thing to do. But since most students don’t have an income and the books are priced so high they’re all are forced to find an alternative, that alternative being pirating if used books aren’t available. Back when I was in college I was always buying used books and was selling them afterwards. But the industry realized that and they started pumping out new editions more often. Books pirating wasn’t a think back then. I really have no idea what the situation is right now, are a lot of students workng off pirated pdfs?
- somethingsome 6y ago
  The situation is worse than ever in my opinion, there are very few used books and they cost as much as the new ones or more. The new books from previously well respected editions (eg Springer GMT) are now 'print on demand' directly by resellers, that means longer time to receive the books and often a very bad binding which last only a few years before falling apart. Of course they kept the same price.
StanislavPetrov 6y ago
>I remember the costs for science/engineering textbooks at university were absolutely outrageous. It wasn't limited to science and engineering. I remember in the 1990s being forced, as a poor student, to shell out almost $200 for a ~60 page book of poems written by the course professor (a book we barely used in the class).
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

webmobdev 6y ago

Makes me glad to be an indian - our courts have ruled that photo-copying parts of textbooks is "fair use" under copyright laws (for academics only)! - Photocopying allowed under law for educational use: Delhi HC - ‘No restriction on how much text can be photocopied as long as syllabus justifies it’: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/delhi-university-photocopying-allowed-under-law-for-educational-use-delhi-hc-4419580/ https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/delhi-univers... - While dismissing a plea by international publishers, a recent judgment from the Delhi High Court holds that photocopying portions of text books is a legitimate exercise if carried out for academic purposes: https://www.indialegallive.com/cover-story-articles/il-feature-news/photocopying-isnt-copyright-violation/ https://www.indialegallive.com/cover-story-articles/il-featu... - Photocopying Textbooks Is Fair Use In India: Western Publishers Withdraw Copyright Suit Against Delhi University: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170309/07340536878/photocopying-textbooks-is-fair-use-india-western-publishers-withdraw-copyright-suit-against-delhi-university.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170309/07340536878/photo...

anonuser123456 6y ago

Headline is misleading. The prices are for libraries, not students. One might expect a perpetual ‘for let’ license to be different than a physical book. Books have a finite lifespan.

fjfksnfbr 6y ago
The oldest book on my shelf is 150 years old. What's the shelf life for the eBook?
- anonuser123456 6y ago
  Library books don’t just sit on shelves?

MichaelMoser123 6y ago

genlib to the rescue! Where would i be without genlib...

st0neyeye 6y ago

Article name is misleading, this is just another front where monopolistic influence and education meet. Overall this is not surprising and has been happening for a long while in other areas, ever since near no risk loans for student education financing became the norm, prices have been marked up based on the expected projected revenue from these almost guaranteed loans. Its been known for awhile that most of these engineering books have only nominal changes in problem sets, and material between editions and this predatory behavior has continued unabated for at least 20 years. No one in a position to influence the outcome has been willing to make changes for the benefit of the students. Much of the engineering principles taught in classes at this level have not changed for almost a hundred years so requiring a new edition of a book that is tied to a online subscription (as many are now) is simply predatory and monopolistic. I've known some professors that have tenure that have bucked the trend and written their own books charging only the cost without copyright, but this is more the exception than the norm and engineering/science has a higher bar when it comes to due diligence with regard to materials.

Farfignoggen 6y ago

College Textbooks the eternal Scam, Rearrange a few chapters and Voilà new edition and no used textbook savings. I had a professor in college that used to rearrange his course syllabus to reorder the chapters in a manner that would defeat the simple rearrangement of content by the textbook publishers and allow the students the choice of using older editions that were the very much more affordable solution!