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Originally Posted by wizwor
Having sat on a school budget committee and funded a college education, I know how much the quid pro quo costs the rest of us. (My kid was required to buy two expensive books which were never opened. They were part of $700 worth of books required for a single semester.)
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Don't you mean "
status quo?"
I don't see any connection between the costs of textbooks and libraries, by the way.
In fact, the government pretty much stays out of the costs of textbooks. They don't regulate prices and they do not block used book sales. High prices for textbooks are basically a result of the free market.
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Originally Posted by wizwor
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Actually, there are some "open-source" textbook projects that are already being developed. Nothing needs to change in order for that to become an option.
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Originally Posted by wizwor
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Actually, a lot of that free material was converted and is distributed by Project Gutenberg, a non-profit and volunteer group, and is in the public domain. People are just using Amazon's services to distribute them -- and they don't always do so for free. (
http://www.amazon.com/Tale-Cities-Gr...5265337&sr=1-3 )
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Originally Posted by wizwor
The barriers to a free book market are gone. Only government institutions and expensive books shackle the industry.
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That's a joke, right?
Public K-12 is a huge market for books -- but as the costs go higher, they will be increasingly happy to rely on open-source free digital textbooks, as long as the books meet school standards.
The prices of books are set by the market. Libraries, schools and governments aren't setting book prices or terms for digital loans; prices are set by the publishers and/or retailers. The book biz is pretty much deregulated, and nothing about the current system stops or disincentivize any individual, organization or corporation that chooses to distribute public domain, or produce new material, for free and as a public good.
This is just libertarianism run amok.