Thread: DRMed textbooks
View Single Post
Old 01-06-2011, 03:13 PM   #26
bhartman36
Wizard
bhartman36 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bhartman36 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bhartman36 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bhartman36 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bhartman36 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bhartman36 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bhartman36 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bhartman36 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bhartman36 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bhartman36 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bhartman36 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
bhartman36's Avatar
 
Posts: 1,323
Karma: 1515835
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: New Jersey, USA
Device: Kobo Libra Colour, Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition (2021)
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrsJoseph View Post
So then what would be your solution?
I'm not a fan of book pirating, but DT for dam that if you think I'm willing to flunk a $3000 plus class over a $140 ebook rental. I'd pirate all day long first. When I was in college, if a student didn't have money for books, they could go to the library and use a copy, print the necessary pages and share.
Like I said, $140 for a textbook (especially a rental) is ridiculous. The path of least resistance would be a library copy of the book, or to share the cost among several students and have study buddies, if you had to (as in, if I don't have it, I'll fail) have the book. As I said in another post, though, I don't think all textbooks are absolutely necessary to have. The point of a class is to learn the material being taught, not to memorize the textbook.

Quote:
Originally Posted by MrsJoseph View Post
When I was in college everyone was excited at the end of the year - now I can sell back these textbooks and get some money to last me through the summer or buy textbooks for the next semester. RENTAL?? Seriously?? I'd be in the department chair's office ASAP. If that didn't work I'd try the Dean and then the chancellor (I'm a big fan of escalations).

And at the end of the day, if I couldn't do anything else, I'd pirate that book and pass my class.
My college days are far behind me, but I seem to recall assigned readings being available at the library, also, so that might be an option. Or just use an older (used) version of the textbook. Sure, it'll be in paper, rather than electronic, but for the price difference, I'd be all over that.

Again, my point isn't to say that $140 for a rental ebook is justified. It's just to say that theft isn't a justifiable response.

And in fact, one of the suggestions I made to the person whose book I found online was to go to the publisher and ask them to lower the price of the book. A lower-priced book is less likely to be stolen. The author agreed with me, but doubted his power to get the publisher to move the price.
bhartman36 is offline   Reply With Quote