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Don't Take Notes In the Bookstore
mikesd81 writes "The Harvard Crimson reports that the Harvard Coop asked Jarret A. Zafran to leave the store after writing down the prices of six books required for a junior Social Studies tutorial. The apparent new policy could be a response to Crimsonreading.org, an online database that allows students to find the books they need for each course at discounted prices from several online booksellers. The Coop claims the ISBN identification numbers in books are their intellectual property. Crimson Reading disagrees. 'We don't think the Coop owns copyright on this information that should be available to students,' said Tom D. Hadfield, co-creator of the site. The student paper reports that an unnamed intellectual property lawyer agreed with Crimson Reading's position."
So, now book sellers don't want you to do price comparisons? College textbooks are so ridiculously overpriced, its a tragedy. I've been lecturing at a community college for over three years now. One class I do is a non-credit pre-Chemistry class. Because its a prereq for General Chem. 1 and 2, we use the first three chapters of the textbook for that course. The $180 textbook. Many of my students aren't even planning on taking General Chem at my school or at all. But, if they want to be able to keep up with the homework, they have to get the book.
And its the same for all my classes. Books are $100 to $200 new, the bookstores almost never have used books, and if they do you know they bought them back from the previous owner for pennies on the dollar. I start each of my classes every semester by showing the students the "required text" and then explaining how they can get by with an older edition or with some internet research.
Lately students have been finding the wholesale-priced "international editions" online which saves them money without sacrificing quality. But, where do schools and publishers think students are getting all this money from?
The intellectual property argument was just an idiotic thing for them to go public with. But, the way I understand it, a store has the right to toss you out for any reason they see fit (presumably barring race or gender.) Thats why they have those "We reserve the right to toss you out on your ass" signs. When I was an annoying little adolescent, some shopkeepers told my friends and I to get out as soon as we came into their store. It was evident that we were just bored and fucking around, not intending to purchase anything. It was evident in this case that the guy was wandering around the store taking notes not only intending not to buy anything but enhancing his ability to shop competitively. If he shared his information he would be broadening that result. The store had no good reason not to toss him out.
Doesn't make it any less annoying though. used to piss me off then, pisses me off now. Especially since he was just trying to get around the unabashed robbery perpetrated by college bookstores and textbook companies.
I suppose you're one of those "It doesn't matter until it happens to me" folks.
You know all those problems in the world? They're your fault. After all, maleficent people are a small minority; the only reason malignant evils persist are because of the indifference of the rest.
Too harsh? Maybe, but people like you really tick me off.
All the techniques ever used to make men moral have been themselves thoroughly immoral... (Nietzsche)
Rhetorical subtlety must be lost on you. The sentence immediately following the "your fault" sentence adequately establishes the context for those who bother to read; i.e. the large class of people (of whom the GP is assumed to be a member, due to his comment) who sit by and do nothing while bad things happen to others are to blame for the endemic perpetuity of human-generated evil. Without their obsequious and/or cynical lack of action, people bent on doing harm would be comparatively powerless and/or ineffectual.
But I suppose some folks need the dots connected for them.
All the techniques ever used to make men moral have been themselves thoroughly immoral... (Nietzsche)
None of the universities or colleges that I've been to have a coop for books. Most of the times its places that are making income gouging the students with outrageous prices.
The bookstore at the college I presently go to will on their own initiative shrink wrap together all the materials for a class, then charge a 10% premium on their already overpriced price. And that is with the instructor not asking for the service.
Typically the prices will be marked up by 20-30% or so from what other retailers are selling them for. My book this quarter for my class was 35 at the store, but only 23 from Amazon, and about the same at several other places.
So of course I can understand if a campus bookstore would want to abuse the copyright measures to make it harder for students to shop elsewhere, if you can't compete on price or service, just paralyze the competition by limiting the ability to shop elsewhere.