What To Do About Students Pirating Textbooks

I feel that it's one of those situations where you have to be in that position in order to decide how you feel about it.

For example, I've sent friends digital copies of books I've bought online. To me, that's the equivalent of lending them a physical copy. I have no problem with people lending my book out or reselling if that was the case.

Now, actual piracy? Well, I suppose I'd have to take the position that if a person really enjoys your book/music, they'll go out and buy a copy for themselves, even if they've pirated a copy already. Tangible versions of things strike a cord with people, especially with books. I don't know if I can say the same thing about strictly e-books though. If I ever read an e-book I fell in love with, I would want to have a physical copy.

If you're self-publishing a textbook, I recommend not offering a digital format. Then you avoid the most of the mess if you feel strongly about the subject--other than people scanning and uploading as a pdf..

As a fiction writer not hoping for riches, I'm happy as long as my readers are happy. If they don't see the value in buying my novels and supporting me, so be it. But I thank those who do support me.
Why do I feel this way? Because it can't be stopped without restricting the reader's freedom. You either have one, or the other.

I wouldn't put out a digital copy if I was self-publishing a textbook. It's one of those rare moments where you can leverage this. But if I wasn't self-pubbing and just a professor recommending a mass-produced textbook, I kind of don't care what people do to get the content--I won't enable piracy though.

On a side note: I had a professor a couple years back who flat-out told the class, "I was forced to tell you guys to buy a textbook and use lessons out of it, so I did. But this is the truth: You'll only need four pages from it, so--I didn't tell you this--go make copies of the pages and return the textbooks." Now, the school had their own bookstore, and he didn't need a textbook whatsoever for the class. Is it right for the school to enforce this? I didn't think so. The professor didn't either.

College textbooks are a bit of a conundrum in and of themselves, separate from other books.

The costs for college textbooks in American has been grossly over-inflated over the past decade or so.

Between 2002 and 2013, the price of college textbooks rose 82% — nearly three times the rate of inflation, according to a recent study by the Government Accountability Office.

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What's interesting to note, is that this is only in the US. The same textbooks commonly cost a third of the price or less in other countries, and some textbook manufacturers tried to get legislation making it illegal to import them into the US.

Textbook maker John Wiley & Sons sued a Thai student-entrepreneur named Supap Kirtsaeng, who had been buying cheaper (but non-pirated) versions of various textbooks in his home country, bringing them to the US, and selling them to his fellow students stateside on eBay. The price differentials were so big that there was quite a bit of money to be made; at trial, the publishing company's lawyers hammered home the fact that they had counted up $1.2 million in receipts over the life of Kirtsaeng's business.

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With textbooks having price tags of $200 or more, to be used for three months, (give or take the quarter vs. semester model) and then only make a quarter of that back upon re-selling them back to the school bookstores, (If you can, new editions come out on average every 2 years, partially to restrict the used book market), I certainly wouldn't blame a student for helping others out.

Honestly, if I was a teacher, I would encourage it.

Whoever the publisher is should realize that someone was going to strip the protection off a digital copy and hand it out to students, or charge them less for a copy. It happens far too often for it not to be considered, legal or not. I've had the talk with my editor (micropublisher) and her opinion was that she knows it happens and, at this point, there's not much she can do about it. All she hopes, and I agree with her, is that people who get such copies will see fit to purchase future titles down the road. If nothing else, they might talk up the work to their friends, who might buy legit copies. But, then, we agreed that all libraries get free e-copies of everything I write anyway for the same reason, so *shrug*

Personally, I think textbooks are a legal racket that needs to stop. When two textbooks for a class cost more than the class AND lab combined, and then the teacher refers to a single chapter of one and never refers to the other at all--it's a rip off. I've often wondered if universities get some kind of kick-back from textbook publishers for that requirement, y'know? </mini-rant>

Piracy, in general, is a symptom of an old paradigm unwilling or unable to cater for a new consumer base. An example of this is the popularity of P2P torrent sites like PirateBay. I haven't done extensive research, but from the few conversations I've had with people (generally under 30 years old), they would support a P2P system that charged a small amount for each download. It would seem reasonable in today's marketplace with such a large consumer base to still make a profit from such a system. My two cents.

As a fellow college instructor, if I knew one of my students had done this -- KNEW it, and had proof -- I would be calling my dean immediately to report it. It's completely illegal, and against every rule imaginable. Once you've done that, it's out of your hands and up to the college.

Now, on the flip side -- I hate textbooks, and I don't use them in my classes. HOWEVER. I also despise what this student did. It seems you will find at least one per semester who wants to get around the rules just to see how long it takes him and if he can get away with it. Let them get away with something like this, and what else will they try?

Plus, as a writer hoping to be published someday, this kind of thing worries me a lot. A digital file is forever; it's not like lending your hardback to a friend for a week.

I just remembered!

Another side note:

With the last pre-req math classes I had, the professor suggested a certain textbook that was self-published. I was questioning why the book was so cheap--$23, vs the $250 I paid for a previous one, both over 300 pages. The class was online, and when I logged in the professor gave a free pdf version of the same book. You had the choice of the free digital or the cheap physical. I asked the prof why it was so cheap and it was because it was about $20 to print and ship, and $3 for the bookstore. The prof wasn't making a cent.

Osulagh said:

I just remembered!

Another side note:

With the last pre-req math classes I had, the professor suggested a certain textbook that was self-published. I was questioning why the book was so cheap--$23, vs the $250 I paid for a previous one, both over 300 pages. The class was online, and when I logged in the professor gave a free pdf version of the same book. You had the choice of the free digital or the cheap physical. I asked the prof why it was so cheap and it was because it was about $20 to print and ship, and $3 for the bookstore. The prof wasn't making a cent.

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If the professor did profit off of them, it would be unethical.

DanielaTorre said:

For example, I've sent friends digital copies of books I've bought online. To me, that's the equivalent of lending them a physical copy. I have no problem with people lending my book out or reselling if that was the case.

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So long as they're not using it at the same time as you are, I'd agree. It's like loaning a paper book. And yes, the resale of physical textbooks is not illegal. Again, the original owner is not going to have access to it once it changes hands.

But with e-books, it may be the case that you don't *really* own it so much as buy the right to have it on your own device. I don't know how e-publishers handle the notion of selling an e-copy and transferring it to other users so that you no longer have a copy on your own devices.

Copying digital textbooks and distributing them to several friends at a time is another matter, though.

It's easy to put it in the same "morally gray" category as making a tape of an album and giving it to a friend (back in the old days, when we made tapes), but it's more problematic because in the old days, making a tape was a somewhat labor intensive process (could only do one at a time), there was some loss of sound quality, and owning a homemade cassette lacked the coolness factor of having the actual vinyl or CD in your collection.

But with electronics, you can make endless copies and distribute them instantly. This has a much larger economic impact on the publisher and authors of said books. Plus, the e-copy probably has no degradation from the original form (as was the case with making tapes from records).

Now, actual piracy? Well, I suppose I'd have to take the position that if a person really enjoys your book/music, they'll go out and buy a copy for themselves, even if they've pirated a copy already. Tangible versions of things strike a cord with people, especially with books. I don't know if I can say the same thing about strictly e-books though. If I ever read an e-book I fell in love with, I would want to have a physical copy.

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I seriously doubt this would happen with a textbook, though. I have never gone, Wow, I loved Cambell's biology textbook so much back in college, that I'm going to go and buy any biology book that author or publisher puts out. students tend to use the texts that are required for their courses, and very, very few buy textbooks to read for fun or personal information outside of class (I've done it a few times, but I'm a biology teacher).

Maybe author influences some instructors to adopt books for their courses. But personally, I tend to choose them based on whether or not the format and content is something that works for my class. When there's a tie, I go with the cheaper of the two.

Some profs do write textbooks, of course (I'd be suspicious of one written by someone who isn't a college-level instructor in said subject), and of course they tend to adopt the books they've written for their own classes. Not a conflict of interest in of itself, but giving any kind of kickback to other instructors you know for adopting your book. That would be very wrong.

I can't say I've ever pirated a textbook, but I can see why students are tempted.

To give an example: some years back I took a climatology paper. The professor teaching the course expected students to spend $300+ on one textbook, of which she flat out said she only planned to use one short chapter as relevant to the course. This was a month's rent, essentially, for students. Needless to say, no-one bought it - we all went to the library to read the chapter in the library copy. The professor then got quite cross with us that she'd ordered dozens of copies for the student bookshop and they were now sitting there like dead weight.

I had no fucking sympathy for her. None. What did she expect? I want to be fair to other authors, and I know textbooks are expensive, but I expect other people to be fair to me as well. If the uni library hadn't had that book, I might well have pirated just to read that chapter. Students are not slot machines.

DeleyanLee said:

Personally, I think textbooks are a legal racket that needs to stop. When two textbooks for a class cost more than the class AND lab combined, and then the teacher refers to a single chapter of one and never refers to the other at all--it's a rip off. I've often wondered if universities get some kind of kick-back from textbook publishers for that requirement, y'know? </mini-rant>

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No, we don't, as far as I know, but sales reps for publishers are very, er, persistent entities in higher education. It's pretty clear there's a lot of money to be made by a publisher getting their textbook adopted by a professor.

ShaunHorton said:

College textbooks are a bit of a conundrum in and of themselves, separate from other books.

The costs for college textbooks in American has been grossly over-inflated over the past decade or so.

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This is why my department has adopted open-source textbooks (which can be offered free, and tweaked by the instructor to suit the class they teach), and why we're encouraging other departments to do the same. Instructors are aware of just how badly their students are being fleeced, and some of us are taking steps to stop it happening.

That said, what we're doing is a terrible long-term solution. Putting out an open-source textbook is essentially a writer working for free. It's very altruistic of a professor to do that right now, but in the long run, they're building a system where authors won't be able to get paid for their work -- because who will pay for the development of a quality textbook when its future sales will be undercut by lower quality, but free content?

And who will update the open-source texts after the grant money (which supported the original authors) is gone? The answer is: Everybody. And that could turn those texts into a hodge-podge of good and bad content.

One of our instructors recently mused aloud that he wondered what the publishers' response to the open-text movement is, or is going to be. Personally, I think they're going to continue trying to suck all the money they can out of students, until they can't anymore due to the presence of open-source texts, and then they'll let the system collapse on itself so they can swoop in once again to offer a quality product at an unfair price because their customers can't take their business elsewhere.

The students lose out during most of that process, and the authors of textbooks will too.

chompers said:

If the professor did profit off of them, it would be unethical.

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What are you talking about? They published it.

My only opinion is that I'm not surprised. Textbooks are an outrageous expense for any student that doesn't come from a wealthy family. I'm not saying that I sanction piracy, but when prices are high, people will do the best they can. My biggest shock from this story is that the price for a license of a digital book is fifty bucks. I guess that's better than a hard copy that costs hundreds of dollars, but what books in the non-scholastic world cost so much? College seems more about making money off the students than teaching them. There were courses I had to avoid in school, not because they weren't useful, but because I couldn't afford the books. Until this changes, students will continue to find ways around it. And I honestly can't blame them.

As a textbook author I am somewhat surprised that they are seen as any more of a racket than any other book. They are information dense and rather expensive to make. In order to roll in the money mine made I would have to have the royalty check issues as pennies.

Please take into account that most text books are highly specialized and have a very small potential readership. Thus the publisher often has to budget to recoup their expenses over as few as 5000 copies.

Professors decide what material to require and if they require something unreasonable that is entirely on their own head regardless of what they say. When I required short readings from books I put my own personal copies on desk loan at the library. if your professors are not so considerate it is not because there is some conspiracy, they are just being lazy and inconsiderate people.

I think that the issues should be discussed in the same way we discuss them for any kind of publishing. And that includes that when I spent three years writing a heavily researched non-fiction book I earned my royalties as much as any author. The second some professor decides to use it as a text, why does it become open season to pirate my work?

I'm not buying it. People short of money can do what I did: use second hand books, group owned copies (i.e. cannot be used simultaneously), and library copies.

Osulagh said:

What are you talking about? They published it.

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To require the students to buy a book that the professor would profit from, that would be unethical. It would be like securing a way to get royalties. It's an assigned textbook in order to complete the course.

The reason why people think of textbooks as rackets more than any other book is because 1) you have a captive market and 2) this captive market, either college students or school districts, are already strapped for cash. If I think the market for YA literature is overpriced, I have every choice not to buy any of it. Even with most reference materials I have some choice in the matter of whether to buy this book or that book. Textbooks? None.

I'd ask him why Google Play and suggest using a Dropbox link or something.

I wonder if textbook publishers would ever sell chapters individually. Like music on itunes - you can buy the entire album, or if you only like one song you can just buy that. Or combinations thereof.

Obviously, we're talking e-copies here.

veinglory said:

Professors decide what material to require and if they require something unreasonable that is entirely on their own head regardless of what they say. When I required short readings from books I put my own personal copies on desk loan at the library. if your professors are not so considerate it is not because there is some conspiracy, they are just being lazy and inconsiderate people.

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We put books at the library for short-term check out (reserve reading it's called). Some students won't take advantage of this, however. We're getting more and more who don't want to come to campus or be on campus except when their classes are in session (or even when their classes are in session to some extent). I've lent personal copies of books (when and if I have more than just a single "desk copy." Textbook publishers are less generous with giving profs extra copies than they once were, especially us adjuncts) to students who have particular hardships. In one case, a young woman had her backpack stolen and her book along with it. I didn't get my copy back at the end of the semester, however.

No good deed, as they say.

chompers said:

To require the students to buy a book that the professor would profit from, that would be unethical. It would be like securing a way to get royalties. It's an assigned textbook in order to complete the course.

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Are you saying that professors shouldn't write textbooks they'd use for the classes they teach, or that they should not receive any royalties from the students that are in their classes and purchase said books? The amount of money professors get from textbook royalties is tiny, in any case. I know some who donate it all anyway. When my dad died, my mom became the recipient of the royalties from the virology textbook he'd written (that he and his co-authors, along with many other authors as well) used in their classes. She set things up so the money went into the memorial scholarship they'd set up in his name.

I don't know any profs who write textbooks for their classes because they want to get rich at the expense of their students. It's usually motivated by a desire to have a book in their subject area that addresses what they see as deficiencies in the other books that are out there, or else they want a book that meshes well with their particular course format.

OJCade said:

I wonder if textbook publishers would ever sell chapters individually. Like music on itunes - you can buy the entire album, or if you only like one song you can just buy that. Or combinations thereof.

Obviously, we're talking e-copies here.

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Yes, custom versions of textbooks are a thing. They can be electronic, or loose leaf packages (meant to put in a three-ring binder). we do this for our non major's biology class, so our students only need purchase the chapters we actually use in our particular course. Some complain about the cheesy (as in not bound) format, however. They have a lower buyback value at the end of the semester.

And the discount isn't as large as you'd think

One thing textbook companies do is sell "access codes" for online content separately. If you purchase a new version of the book, you get one automatically. But if you buy a used book, and you want to access the online ancillary material, you have to go to the publisher's website and pay a fee to access them.

It's piracy either way. I imagine schools have policies on this. Where I go (and work), students can be expelled for P2P filesharing on sites like Pirate Bay. I would think that for textbooks, it's a steeper penalty as schools and many textbook publishers have positive business relationships and universities might not want to damage that with scandal of textbook piracy.

On a semi-related note, one of my books this semester would have cost me $189 in hardback form. But, the bookstore also had the "loose leaf" version for $49. No binding, just the book printed out on pages that you put into a binder. A great idea, imho. If I only have to read 2-3 chapters that week, that's all I have to bring in. And I can write on the pages w/o feeling guilty! While digital textbooks are fine, some are better in physical form because it's something I want to physically "leaf" through at times (and clunky to do that on my Kindle).

I do agree that some textbooks are completely out of control in regard to pricing, especially when the book you purchased won't be accepted during "book buyback" at the end of the semester because they have a new edition coming out next year. (One that has might have 10 extra pages of "new material.") Very frustrating.

As a teacher, I always try to avoid assigning textbooks now unless I absolutely have to. Most of the time, I can supplement from my own collection (under academic free use), as long as I follow the rules and guidelines set forth by the publisher and the university. So, most of my material will be scanned PDFs.

I have considered myself lucky, though. Most of my textbooks were not overly expensive. I cannot imagine how much science majors spend on math, biology, chemistry books. I would think those are disgustingly expensive.

chompers said:

To require the students to buy a book that the professor would profit from, that would be unethical. It would be like securing a way to get royalties. It's an assigned textbook in order to complete the course.

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I don't agree with that at all.

Textbooks aren't required to pass the class; they're recommended. Certainly you find the same info--even better--online and in a library for free. A textbook just has the info already collected. By no means does the teacher force the students to buy a textbook.

I don't believe it's unethical because it allows the teachers to prepare their lessons the way they want--by perfectly structuring the textbook's content to their teaching method. I've learned from teachers who taught "straight from the book" and to their own way, and the latter is greatly superior.
While the textbook also can be cheaper, better suited for classroom/online work, more specialized to the area, and more. Hell, if the teachers can pull this off well, I think they've earned their royalties.

Now, it's unethical for a college to enforce professors to require a textbook, and teach from it--like I noted before.

Osulagh said:

Textbooks aren't required to pass the class

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They are if the homework problems are assigned out of them. Bonus points if they shuffle things around just enough each edition that you can't rely on used copies.

Yeah, a lot of maths courses assign problems from the textbook.

That said, in those cases there are usually copies at the library on closed reserve (can be borrowed for a maximum of two hours at a time, can't be taken out of the library).