Slashdot Mirror
For Americans, Imported Textbooks Can Be Cheaper
mblase writes "The NYTimes has an article (free reg required, someone'll post the Google link any minute now) about how the Internet has trumped capitalism yet again -- the very same college textbooks used in the United States sell for half price, or less, in England. One sophomore imported 30 biology books this fall and sold them outside his classroom for less than the campus-bookstore price, netting a $1,200 profit." Wait 'til they shuffle the problem sets.
We must enact strict legilation to protect American citizens from this threat.
Well, if you want to be really accurate (and horribly picky), the Americans like dropping a few vowels here and there, not the other way around. ;)
"This is outrageous" was among the comments heard fom Jack Ripov, spokesman of the TBAA, the Text Book Association of America.
He also stated that, "Selling those books at such low prices in America is obviously going to hurt quality. We spend a lot of money to make that our customers only receive top notch quality products. Now the market gets swamped with british textbooks that spell words like color or aluminun wrong, hurting the spelling of many students here, yes, very undermining what this country stands for. But we will not watch this idly!"
This comment is obviously a reference to the soon to be introduced move to region-encoded textbooks.
When asked how region-encoded textbooks would work, Mr Ripov was kind of enough to supply us with some basic details.
"You see, everyone who wants to use a textbook will get a new device implanted into his brain ensuring that they only use textbooks from their Region. If you would start to read a textbook from another region, the device would simply tap into a neural interface and deactivate your eyes, effectively stopping you from violating our IP rights."
When asked what about persons who would not have such a device implanted into their brains, Ripov replied: "Well, obviously we will have to deal with those unamerican IP-terrorists as well, but we have a strong case there that reading a textbook without a brain control device is in violation of the DMCA, and we will not hesitate to enfore our rights in court."
Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul
ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.
In the latest news, since the PMCA (Printed Millenium Copyright Act) has passed in the last few hours, the BIAA (Book-ing Industry Association of America) has started printing on books that "books printed in other regions of the world are not to be imported in the USA. First offence is punishable with a reprimand letter, and if the felony is repeated, the crime is punishable with 10 years in prison."
The guidelines for one relevant section invoking Non-Patriotic Book-ing Transactions in the drafting the PMCA had been lifted from the MPAA strategy of dividing the world into "regions" so that products were deliberately crippled to work in only one region out of many that had been drawn up by the MPAA. In addition, the redrawing of the printed-book regions drew upon the recent legislative successes in the re-districting of Texas, also called Xtreme GerryMandering.
In an other related development, the Patriot Act has been invoked to open and check all book packages coming into the US. Additionally, the Ashcroftian-Feds have started entering public libraries and private libraries (i.e. book collections in the homes or dorms) to enforce these laws. As they do not have to intimate the suspects before and after the act, most people are unaware that the feds have been rummaging thru their books. Some private diaries have been exposed, and a clique of people referring themselves as /.'s (WTF) have especially been targeted for subversive reading of "filtered" news that has been the special target of the POTUS.
To see a world in a grain of sand, and then to step back and see the beach where the sand lies
> The brits like throwing in an extra vowel here and there. Color vs. colour, etc. -rick
Yes, we must be wrong, after all, They've been speaking English in America much longer than in England !
And the Internet teams up with it again. "Leveling markets here there and everywhere! Let's ride, trusty chum!"
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
I hear that some foreign biology text books talk about a concept called "evolution" that is considered to be immoral in many US states.
Xix.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
"SUCKER!"
Now that's balls.
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
Ask me how I know.
Derive your epistemology. Be concise, thorough, and use an even mix of at least three styles for citation.
Give an even treatment to both Oriental and Occidental thought, from ancient to modern times, and and a healthy dose of Islamic thinkers, so the pseudo-Muslim |-|4> You have one hour and fifty minutes.
Good luck.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
"Das Capital" is still the root of much modern economic theory.
And "Das Capital" was just a warmed over restatement of "The Wealth of Nations", with some political diatribe thrown in to keep the reader's interest.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
I guess we British students should stop moaning so much.
No, you've still got shithouse weather.
http://jesus.everdense.com/
That's because here in the U.S. we get charged a premium on vowels compared to what they sell for in the U.K.; so think on that before you go sounding so smug!!!!!
quiquid id est, timeo puellas et oscula dantes.
Smitty, this is your philosophy professor. Showing off the words you picked up in class in a Slashdot post won't make your midterm exam grade any better. Sorry. :*(
Sincerely,
The Prof
At $2.10 per textbook, I don't give a crap whether it falls apart halfway through the semester. Just buy two of them. Or three.
(Of course there's shipping to worry about...)
No wonder the poor college students can't afford to pay for CDs. Instead of picking on the file sharers, the RIAA should go after the text publishing industry.
I guess we British students should stop moaning so much.
No, you've still got shithouse weather.
And the bland, gray food.
What are you talking about?
Curry is neither gray nor bland.