Professor Sick Of Textbook Publishers Charging Students Hundreds Of Dollars, Finds A Genius Loophole
For many college students, acquiring textbooks has become just as hard as reading them. According to CBS News, 65 percent of students skip buying required texts at some point in their college career due to lack of affordability. One professor got so fed up with publishers abusing his students, that he decided to take matters into his own hands.
“He was a great teacher,” a student of his who wanted to remain anonymous told Bored Panda. “He’s was willing to go above and beyond to help students learn the material.”
The professor took the time to do some research and found a legal loophole which he then exploited unapologetically to help his students save money. “I spent about $400 on textbooks per semester,” the student added. “Way too much.”
In fact, they were so thankful for the hundreds of saved dollars, they shared the story on reddit. Generating over 24,000 upvotes, you could say the internet appreciated the professor’s efforts as well! Scroll down to check them out.
(Facebook cover image: Marco Klapper)
65 percent of students skip buying required texts at some point in their college career because they can’t afford them
Image credits: Stacy Davis (not the actual photo)
One professor, however, got fed up with textbook publishers as much as his students were, so he took matters into his own hands
People were quick to appreciate his efforts, and some even calculated the price of this act of kindness
Well in India we use the photocopy of the book. The publishers were furious about this and challenged in court but the court ruled in favour of the student thus allowing us to make photocopies.
It seems this story is from the US... and it is legal to make copies of textbook pages to distribute to students for the purpose of class.
It's legal to copy a few pages at a time - but it is NOT legal to copy the entire book. That's the way copyright works around the world.
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E-books often cost the same as printed textbooks, and a lot of them contain a code for logging into a homework website, but the code expires after one semester, so you can't even use a used book. It's a total money-grab.
I use to work at college text book store and man are they horrible, not only do they pay you pennies on the dollar when you sell them back. But most publishers update their text books every 2 to 4 years and jack up the price before the put out a new addition. FYI most new additions don't have too much new info if at all, most just rearrange the chapters and switch out pictures. Its a scam through and through.
Why does it seem that so many people commenting here haven't figured out that the 13th Edition of some math text happens to be strikingly similar to the 12th Edition? 13th Ed., brand new $300. 12th Ed., Used $8.
I dont think this is right, the books are expensive because they dont sell that many copies and if not noone would publish. Use the library.
Actually, the justification for their expense is that in theory, they're all very technical and require 'experts' to write them. That, and some fields, that information goes very stale rather quickly. (I'm thinking coding software, for example.)
Load More Replies...
In Bulgaria, when I was a student, most professors don't care if you have photocopies of their books. They would typically have a required book, but hey didn't check who bought it and who copied it. The university library usually had all the books you would require and you could check them out and copy them. Very few professors checked who bought their book and they were usually scumbags.
Why can books not be traded/re-sold? I ma schools in ZA supply books to the students (at least back in my day) that had perhaps been used by over 10 years of students (some even @ 20 years). Sure, if you have the money go and buy, but sell a perfectly used book for 50% off and give it a second life? Even a third? Especially Physics books.
Because much of the time the next semester the professor assigns a new version. Your copy is Edition 2.9 and you go to resell it but find out 2.9 is obsolete, now he is assigning 3.9, which is 50 dollars more. This goes on and on. At least in the USA. No bookstores want the earlier version.
Load More Replies...
For grad school my professor for Econ didn't even use a book. Each class would come with a 5-7 page PDF explaining the basics and the formula. It was still a hard class but 7 years later I still have all those PDF files just in case I need them again and they were free.
If he didn't want a third party to sell his work because he had an ethical issue, he should not have worked for them. Instead he got paid for his work and then complained that company he took a paycheck from was unethical. At the same time her is distributed the work they paid for in a legally/morally questionable way.
I wouldn't be surprised if there was a clause saying any literature a prof produces as part of the classes is property of the school in the contract. There might be a subclause about compensation/publication, but yeah.
Load More Replies...
It strikes me as odd that most of the comments are focussed on calculating the time and effort the teacher had to put into this, instead of criticising the publishers and the professors for their royalty scams.
Why are college textbooks so bleeding expensive? Indeed, why are books so bleeding expensive, period? I recently paid $24 for a softcover autobiography. I know the author, so I didn't mind the price - much.
Yankee9204 hurt my brain. I think I could collect damages...ouch.
I remember in law school you had to bring the book to the exam to get the examiners (and author) authograph
...why would you want their autograph? were they famous?
Load More Replies...
While price is a problem, so is writing style. I had a textbook on tourism that was 400+ pages long with most sentences being 2 lines and longer. It was a difficult read for an easy/ simple subject matter. On the other hand I had a 150 page textbook on Accounting that was far easier to read and got the theory across much more smoothly, even though the subject was more complex. Not every professor can be a writer as well.
Not only that, but I had one professor who went with Hagrid's reasoning in selecting school books. (the monster book of monsters... "i thought they were funny"). The book *I'm* thinking about though was like 8x6 inches in size, might have had about a hundred pages in it, but the text was so screwed up that it was impossible to read, and in general had about six words on a given page. (the text...flowed... in sizes. Kinda looked like you were using a magnifying glass. half of one word would fill the half the page, the other half would be so small you couldn't read it with out a microfiche reader.)
Load More Replies...
I wanna know where math genius (Yankee2409) is getting a text book for $80! I've yet to encounter a college book that's less than $200! I wanna shop where he shops.
Depends on the country you're living in: i remember back in the 90ies, THE textbook for zoology in Germany would cost almost DM 100 (€ 50 today, inflation not considered) and this book was terribly written! Worst didactics i've ever seen! A textbook on zoology bought in London would cost around 50 DM (€ 25...) and it's didactics were awesome! It even had pictures (none in the German one), printed in color! And it was a lot more up to date in science. Generally spoken: EVERY textbook on biology from UK was a LOT better and cheaper than any book in Germany.
Load More Replies...
We used to have a booming second-hand textbook system, but companies get around this by constantly putting out new editions. Sometimes this isn't a big deal, but sometimes the page difference between editions can have serious consequences. Buy new book, make photocopy, return text
Well in India we use the photocopy of the book. The publishers were furious about this and challenged in court but the court ruled in favour of the student thus allowing us to make photocopies.
It seems this story is from the US... and it is legal to make copies of textbook pages to distribute to students for the purpose of class.
It's legal to copy a few pages at a time - but it is NOT legal to copy the entire book. That's the way copyright works around the world.
Load More Replies... E-books often cost the same as printed textbooks, and a lot of them contain a code for logging into a homework website, but the code expires after one semester, so you can't even use a used book. It's a total money-grab.
I use to work at college text book store and man are they horrible, not only do they pay you pennies on the dollar when you sell them back. But most publishers update their text books every 2 to 4 years and jack up the price before the put out a new addition. FYI most new additions don't have too much new info if at all, most just rearrange the chapters and switch out pictures. Its a scam through and through.
Why does it seem that so many people commenting here haven't figured out that the 13th Edition of some math text happens to be strikingly similar to the 12th Edition? 13th Ed., brand new $300. 12th Ed., Used $8.
I dont think this is right, the books are expensive because they dont sell that many copies and if not noone would publish. Use the library.
Actually, the justification for their expense is that in theory, they're all very technical and require 'experts' to write them. That, and some fields, that information goes very stale rather quickly. (I'm thinking coding software, for example.)
Load More Replies... In Bulgaria, when I was a student, most professors don't care if you have photocopies of their books. They would typically have a required book, but hey didn't check who bought it and who copied it. The university library usually had all the books you would require and you could check them out and copy them. Very few professors checked who bought their book and they were usually scumbags.
Why can books not be traded/re-sold? I ma schools in ZA supply books to the students (at least back in my day) that had perhaps been used by over 10 years of students (some even @ 20 years). Sure, if you have the money go and buy, but sell a perfectly used book for 50% off and give it a second life? Even a third? Especially Physics books.
Because much of the time the next semester the professor assigns a new version. Your copy is Edition 2.9 and you go to resell it but find out 2.9 is obsolete, now he is assigning 3.9, which is 50 dollars more. This goes on and on. At least in the USA. No bookstores want the earlier version.
Load More Replies... For grad school my professor for Econ didn't even use a book. Each class would come with a 5-7 page PDF explaining the basics and the formula. It was still a hard class but 7 years later I still have all those PDF files just in case I need them again and they were free.
If he didn't want a third party to sell his work because he had an ethical issue, he should not have worked for them. Instead he got paid for his work and then complained that company he took a paycheck from was unethical. At the same time her is distributed the work they paid for in a legally/morally questionable way.
I wouldn't be surprised if there was a clause saying any literature a prof produces as part of the classes is property of the school in the contract. There might be a subclause about compensation/publication, but yeah.
Load More Replies... It strikes me as odd that most of the comments are focussed on calculating the time and effort the teacher had to put into this, instead of criticising the publishers and the professors for their royalty scams.
Why are college textbooks so bleeding expensive? Indeed, why are books so bleeding expensive, period? I recently paid $24 for a softcover autobiography. I know the author, so I didn't mind the price - much.
Yankee9204 hurt my brain. I think I could collect damages...ouch.
I remember in law school you had to bring the book to the exam to get the examiners (and author) authograph
...why would you want their autograph? were they famous?
Load More Replies... While price is a problem, so is writing style. I had a textbook on tourism that was 400+ pages long with most sentences being 2 lines and longer. It was a difficult read for an easy/ simple subject matter. On the other hand I had a 150 page textbook on Accounting that was far easier to read and got the theory across much more smoothly, even though the subject was more complex. Not every professor can be a writer as well.
Not only that, but I had one professor who went with Hagrid's reasoning in selecting school books. (the monster book of monsters... "i thought they were funny"). The book *I'm* thinking about though was like 8x6 inches in size, might have had about a hundred pages in it, but the text was so screwed up that it was impossible to read, and in general had about six words on a given page. (the text...flowed... in sizes. Kinda looked like you were using a magnifying glass. half of one word would fill the half the page, the other half would be so small you couldn't read it with out a microfiche reader.)
Load More Replies... I wanna know where math genius (Yankee2409) is getting a text book for $80! I've yet to encounter a college book that's less than $200! I wanna shop where he shops.
Depends on the country you're living in: i remember back in the 90ies, THE textbook for zoology in Germany would cost almost DM 100 (€ 50 today, inflation not considered) and this book was terribly written! Worst didactics i've ever seen! A textbook on zoology bought in London would cost around 50 DM (€ 25...) and it's didactics were awesome! It even had pictures (none in the German one), printed in color! And it was a lot more up to date in science. Generally spoken: EVERY textbook on biology from UK was a LOT better and cheaper than any book in Germany.
Load More Replies... We used to have a booming second-hand textbook system, but companies get around this by constantly putting out new editions. Sometimes this isn't a big deal, but sometimes the page difference between editions can have serious consequences. Buy new book, make photocopy, return text
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