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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."
Surely you have to demonstrate that some intellectual effort went into the production of the ISBN for it to come under IP law in the first place (regardless of "ownership"). Presumably the publisher was just allocated a bunch of ISBNs and they just happened to allocat one of them this one book? Shoot me down if you like. I'm not an expert.
God forbid you mess with the media mafiosi. What I found funny was that some Chinese students were smuggling international editions in and selling them for $10-20 after they were done with them. These were books that were supposed to cost me $150. I also used to wait in front of the buyback tables and offer $5 or $10 more than the bookstores low low buyback price for the books (required for my classes) that they would later sell for five times as much. That really pissed them off, even though the employees were just students getting paid a flat hourly rate.
I used to have a really hard time believing they were worth that much until I got some bad assigned textbooks. Problem was that the bad textbooks had the same damn price.
That's the theory, but in practice, some of the shoddier American publishers have reused ISBNs to save having to request and pay for a new series of numbers to be issued.
In practice, this problem isn't a problem for most of us, and we can treat the ISBN as if it was unique.
Heh, I went one step further than the kid in this story. I looked up the books on Amazon, ordered them, and got free shipping. Then, since I needed to do the reading right away, I went to the bookstore and bought the books, with the intention of returning them as soon as I received them from Amazon.
So yeah, basically I'm a horrible person, but I saved $30.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
BTW, where can I get a Faraday vest (search page for text)?
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
In both universities I attended, textbooks were sold at market prices.
Beetle B.
And you're one of those "I know what's evil and what's not" folks.
You know all that conflict in the world? It's your fault. The only reason why such unproductive conflict is present in all forms and scales of society is because everyone seems to knows what's best for everyone else and few have any empathy.
Too harsh now?
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
Because you haven't looked? Some of my friends are cops, and I assure you they have to be subjected to everything before they can carry it(except firearms, obviously). OC spray is part of academy training, everyone gets it. They're sprayed and then have to run a gauntlet and fight. TASER training is optional, but if the department even uses them being hit with one is part of being certified to carry it.
Like the others pointed out, this is true in principal but not in practice. So you have to plan your database around the idea that there will be duplicate ISBN's as we learned at Amazon. :)
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
Caltech's bookstore will let you show proof of a cheaper price at several online retailers (amazon included) and they'll match that price. You might not want to purchase anything else at the crazy prices they have there, but at least they keep the textbooks competitive with online options.
@AlexSheive
At the college I go to, the instructors list the ISBNs for all needed books in their Syllabi. Is that not done elsewhere?
All comments are properties and trademarks of the voices in my head. Not like I'm gonna claim them.
What constitutes "market price"? Is it the price of the book printed on the book? Or is it what the book is going for "off the street". I can tell you that both of the schools I went to charged the same price as the price on the cover of the book. I don't see how that is market price when I can go online and get the same thing, new even, for $100 cheaper.