5 ms·

The US textbook industry that is. UK univesities often don't have required textbooks for courses at all (instead you get things like PDF notes being provided di

The US textbook industry that is. UK univesities often don't have required textbooks for courses at all (instead you get things like PDF notes being provided directly to students, and often with printed copies subsidised too), and where they do older editions are almost always acceptable (unless it's a course in a subject that moves very quickly where the older edition would genuinely be outdated), and there will usually be some copies available in the library too. I believe it is like this everywhere in Europe.

ano88888 3y ago
It is a shame on US law enforcement. It is an example of how corrupt or bad the system is. There are so many petty crimes law enforecement don't bother to give a shit but when it comes to accessing knowledge (legal or illegal) ,they come in full force. It is just ridiculous on how much priority and impotance they put in these things compared to other crimes. It is because they are corrupted by the influence of the industries or money. Democracy at it's worst.
f6v 3y ago
It’s different in Europe, but you still need a book once in a while when doing a degree. And it’s insane to expect students to part with a three-figure number for a book.
Double_a_92 3y ago
Same here. Most profs had their own condensed script that they just handed out to us. And if a topic was more complex it had a reference to well-known books that we could use if we were interested. Or if we were really required to buy a book, it usually was like a really good 30$ book that we could use as reference for the whole degree.
calini 3y ago
We had a single professor in first year in a UK university ask us to buy his book, but it was £10, no biggie. The rest of the material was always available online in .pdf, or pre-printed for you to collect
sersi 3y ago
In my university in France (small engineering school), usually teachers would just give printed notes to the students. The few rare times where a textbook was required, the library bought one copy for each student so we could just borrow them.
Garcia98 3y ago
It is the same in Spain. Fun story, I had a professor in university that tried to force us to buy his own book for his course, refusing to provide notes or any other free alternatives, and for the final exam he allowed anyone to bring in his book. We complained to the school board as this was unfair and there was a conflict of interests, the exam was redone by a committee and a new professor replaced him the next year.
- klyrs 3y ago
  Damn. Early in my college years I took a course from a lecturer who made us buy not one but two useless books of his (each on its fifth edition or so). The bookstore was owned and operated by the college, so I didn't even bother to complain.
  - II2II 3y ago
    I ran into a situation where a graded component of a course required buying the textbook by the lecturer. It involved an online testing service through a company owned by the lecturer. I raised a complaint with the university pointing out it was against policy along with the conflict of interest, was forced to transfer to a section led by another lecturer (same course, different textbook, considerably worse lecturer), and the university never bothered doing anything about it.
Swizec 3y ago
My college in Slovenia had the print shop. It was next door to the main faculty building and they could pirate any textbook you needed. You didn't even need to know the name of the book, you could just say "I need the book for so and so professor's so and so class" and they'd print it out for you. All the source files were already on their copy machines' hard drives. While technically illegal, this was fully endorsed by faculty and administration in the "If you need books, don't go next door and print them there. Under no circumstances are you to do that. Again, don't under any circumstances go next door and ask for these books at 5 cents per page. And whatever you do, do _not_ ask for 2 pages per page in tiny print to make it cheaper"
- e3bc54b2 3y ago
  Heh, thats pretty cool. Here in India we just legalized copying for educational purposes. No tricks necessary!
  - 2Gkashmiri 3y ago
    uh.. you sure about that? https://www.edexlive.com/news/2021/oct/05/forget-movies-delhi-police-arrests-38-year-old-for-printing-pirated-ncert-textbooks-24557.html https://www.edexlive.com/news/2021/oct/05/forget-movies-delh... https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Book-piracy-racket-busted-Rs-1-cr-haul/articleshow/1300774.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Book-piracy-r...
    - slim 3y ago
      copyright oligarchs are ruthless. in Tunisia we had UN supported "Tunis model law on copyright for developing countries" since 1967 which includes provisions against copyright for teaching, research and health. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000091049 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000091049 but in 1993 Microsoft bribed the regime to change those laws
- riffraff 3y ago
  Same in Italy when I was a student some twenty years ago. Noticeably, this was done at multiple print shops in the university area, and you could get a discount or a free copy if you brought the original when a new book was chosen. The whole academic establishment basically was aware of this, except for a few professors who insist on selling their own book, but it's typically in humanities or social sciences.

ano88888 3y ago

It is a shame on US law enforcement. It is an example of how corrupt or bad the system is. There are so many petty crimes law enforecement don't bother to give a shit but when it comes to accessing knowledge (legal or illegal) ,they come in full force. It is just ridiculous on how much priority and impotance they put in these things compared to other crimes. It is because they are corrupted by the influence of the industries or money. Democracy at it's worst.

f6v 3y ago

It’s different in Europe, but you still need a book once in a while when doing a degree. And it’s insane to expect students to part with a three-figure number for a book.

Double_a_92 3y ago

Same here. Most profs had their own condensed script that they just handed out to us. And if a topic was more complex it had a reference to well-known books that we could use if we were interested. Or if we were really required to buy a book, it usually was like a really good 30$ book that we could use as reference for the whole degree.

calini 3y ago

We had a single professor in first year in a UK university ask us to buy his book, but it was £10, no biggie. The rest of the material was always available online in .pdf, or pre-printed for you to collect

sersi 3y ago

In my university in France (small engineering school), usually teachers would just give printed notes to the students. The few rare times where a textbook was required, the library bought one copy for each student so we could just borrow them.

Garcia98 3y ago

It is the same in Spain. Fun story, I had a professor in university that tried to force us to buy his own book for his course, refusing to provide notes or any other free alternatives, and for the final exam he allowed anyone to bring in his book. We complained to the school board as this was unfair and there was a conflict of interests, the exam was redone by a committee and a new professor replaced him the next year.

klyrs 3y ago
Damn. Early in my college years I took a course from a lecturer who made us buy not one but two useless books of his (each on its fifth edition or so). The bookstore was owned and operated by the college, so I didn't even bother to complain.
- II2II 3y ago
  I ran into a situation where a graded component of a course required buying the textbook by the lecturer. It involved an online testing service through a company owned by the lecturer. I raised a complaint with the university pointing out it was against policy along with the conflict of interest, was forced to transfer to a section led by another lecturer (same course, different textbook, considerably worse lecturer), and the university never bothered doing anything about it.

Swizec 3y ago

My college in Slovenia had the print shop. It was next door to the main faculty building and they could pirate any textbook you needed. You didn't even need to know the name of the book, you could just say "I need the book for so and so professor's so and so class" and they'd print it out for you. All the source files were already on their copy machines' hard drives. While technically illegal, this was fully endorsed by faculty and administration in the "If you need books, don't go next door and print them there. Under no circumstances are you to do that. Again, don't under any circumstances go next door and ask for these books at 5 cents per page. And whatever you do, do _not_ ask for 2 pages per page in tiny print to make it cheaper"

e3bc54b2 3y ago
Heh, thats pretty cool. Here in India we just legalized copying for educational purposes. No tricks necessary!
- 2Gkashmiri 3y ago
  uh.. you sure about that? https://www.edexlive.com/news/2021/oct/05/forget-movies-delhi-police-arrests-38-year-old-for-printing-pirated-ncert-textbooks-24557.html https://www.edexlive.com/news/2021/oct/05/forget-movies-delh... https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Book-piracy-racket-busted-Rs-1-cr-haul/articleshow/1300774.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Book-piracy-r...
  - slim 3y ago
    copyright oligarchs are ruthless. in Tunisia we had UN supported "Tunis model law on copyright for developing countries" since 1967 which includes provisions against copyright for teaching, research and health. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000091049 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000091049 but in 1993 Microsoft bribed the regime to change those laws
riffraff 3y ago
Same in Italy when I was a student some twenty years ago. Noticeably, this was done at multiple print shops in the university area, and you could get a discount or a free copy if you brought the original when a new book was chosen. The whole academic establishment basically was aware of this, except for a few professors who insist on selling their own book, but it's typically in humanities or social sciences.