on teaching students to become responsible citizens

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Mary Shaw [mary.shaw () gmail com]
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2008 10:50 AM
To: David Farber
Subject: Re: [IP] Re: BitTorrent now being used for piracy of textbooks

We in universities are supposed to be teaching students to become responsible citizens. It has been unsettling that 
they pirate their entertainment.  It's distressing for this to enter the classroom.  How can we expect students to 
understand that plagiarism is wrong if they're pirating their textbooks?

It's clear that exhortation isn't the solution.  Even if the old models still worked, exhortation wouldn't be the 
solution.  But electronic access has broken the old models.

We tell ourselves that the students buy books as an investment, because they'll keep the textbooks for reference for a 
long time.  That model is broken, too.  How many students actually keep the texts?  How many texts in technology areas 
are still the best sources of information 5 years later?  Aren't our graduates getting fresh information off the web?

So here's a challenge to the faculty of higher education:  Can we create a better model for developing and distributing 
course materials? Can we stand apart from the entertainment industry to embrace and exploit technological progress?

I'm not saying that we should simply give away the materials -- The author of a textbook certainly deserves reward, 
just like the writer and performer of a song (unlike the music industry, textbook authors do actually receive some 
return for their time -- I estimate my royalties have brought in about 25 cents per hour for the time I spent 
developing the texts).  So does the editor -- that unsung person who converts the textbook from a text to a product. 
But electronic distribution should be much more efficient for the printing/wholesaling/retailing part of the textbook 
business, which probably accounts for 60-70% of the price.

We could also take another look at how the money flows. Student purchase of a physical book under first-sale doctrine 
works for paper, but not for electrons.  This is especially so if we abandon the myth that they'll keep all the books.

Mary Shaw

On Thu, Jul 3, 2008 at 9:31 AM, David Farber <dave () farber net<mailto:dave () farber net>> wrote:

________________________________________
From: Seth Goldhamer [seth () goldhamer net<mailto:seth () goldhamer net>]
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2008 9:15 AM
To: David Farber
Subject: RE: [IP] Re:     BitTorrent now being used for piracy of textbooks

The only people who can solve the problem are the professors who choose the
books. If they collectively let it be known that they are taking price into
account when they make their selections then maybe prices will become more
reasonable. If a lower-priced book is deficient the professor can make up
for it in classroom lectures.





-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net<mailto:dave () farber net>]
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2008 6:24 AM
To: ip
Subject: [IP] Re: BitTorrent now being used for piracy of textbooks


________________________________________
From: Kenneth_Mayer () Dell com [Kenneth_Mayer () Dell com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 10:26 PM
To: David Farber
Subject: RE: [IP] Re:  BitTorrent now being used for piracy of textbooks

I could not agree with Kris anymore! I recently started my first semester
teaching as an adjunct and I am shocked at what a student has to pay for a
textbook for networking. $165 bucks? Are you kidding me, that book is
outdated the day it is published. I have also been told I don't have a
choice whether to use a book outside of the schools jurisdiction, lest I
upset particular people. I feel bad for my students and I am still paying
school loans off that include textbooks. I have no sympathy for them either
as both a former student and now a teacher. If I would have had the choice
to get them off the web when I was in school, I may have considered it as
well.  Instead of embracing web by starting to use PDF's of textbooks or
downloadable courses, they continue to screw students over semester after
semester and then proceed to change the book for the semester. You know
these books actually rarely change when they have a new edition come out.
How many times can World War II actually change? (yes I am joking about the
lst one).

Ken



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