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Copyright Lobby Targets "Pirate Bay For Books"

Posted by samzenpus on from the what-about-the-library dept.

An anonymous reader writes "TTVK, a Finnish national copyright lobby, is threatening a book rental service called Bookabooka for allegedly running the 'Pirate Bay for Books.' Bookabooka however does not offer a torrent tracker service, nor does it enable a user in any way to download eBooks; it simply provides a place for book owners to rent textbooks to each other via the traditional mail service. It is mandatory that all textbooks must be originals. The service is used by a lot of School and University students, and it does not handle the shipping or returns of the textbooks. Nevertheless, the Finnish book publishers' association (Suomen Kustannusyhdistys) is convinced the service is breaching the copyright laws and threatening their business. TTVK has given Bookabooka until Friday to cease operations or face a lawsuit. Bookabooka's founders have vowed to keep the service online and ignore the threat."

15 of 356 comments (clear)

  1. Who needs to hunt down textbooks in Finland? by CRCulver · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Speaking as a student at the University of Helsinki, nearly all textbooks I need are offered by one of the libraries, who keeps a number of copies of each textbook around so that students can take them out, do the course, and then return them at the end of the semester. Until I read this, I never imagined that university students in this country ever have a hard time getting access to textbooks and would need some kind of outside service like that.

    1. Re:Who needs to hunt down textbooks in Finland? by ionix5891 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Erm

      no one uses this site

      http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/bookabooka.fi

      this is a non story

    2. Re:Who needs to hunt down textbooks in Finland? by linzeal · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Who goes to the library anymore. I download 80% of the textbooks I need from Piratebay. Saves me 1000's a year.

      --
      An Education is the Font of All Liberty
    3. Re:Who needs to hunt down textbooks in Finland? by petermgreen · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I don't understand how this works. If this was the case, what incentive would the professor have to require four of his books and never use them in the course?
      I see americans on /. talk about this as if it's a normal thing. Maybe it is in the USA, that doesn't mean it is everywhere.

      At least on my course ( electronic systems engineering at manchester in the uk ) with a combination of good handouts and a reasonable library there is little need to purchase books. I think i've purchased one textbook so far on my course (and i've nearly finished said course)

      The one time i've noticed a lecturer putting one of his own books on the "reccomended books" list he made sure there were plenty of copy of copies in the library, printed a large chunk of the content for us free in the form of a handout and basically explicitly advised us not to buy it.

      Very strange system you guys have there.
      I have to say I think the american system which drives students into insane ammounts of debt both directly with fees and with very high other expenses is pretty strange/fucked up.

      I guess it's all a matter of perspective.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    4. Re:Who needs to hunt down textbooks in Finland? by Joutsa · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Anyway, the service is quite new, and before this incident relatively unknown. At least I had never heard of it until this incident, and same applies to several people who discussed this on Helsingin Sanomat website (many of which noted they shall be using the service as text book prices are not reasonable for majority of students).

      Interesting. At my university (TKK) used textbooks have been traded on the local news server at least since early 1990s. My first reaction was "Why would anybody pay to use a service that already has a better free alternative?". I guess the news are not part of internet.

    5. Re:Who needs to hunt down textbooks in Finland? by AlHunt · · Score: 2, Interesting

      >I have to say I think the american system which drives students into
      >insane ammounts of debt both directly with fees and with very high
      > other expenses is pretty strange/fucked up.

      My kingdom for a mod point. With 32 million Americans on food stamps (roughly the population of Canada) you'd think the American government would be prioritizing education, training and programs designed to raise the socioeconomic status of it's citizens instead of piddling away money that just gets diverted to executive bonuses.

      --
      1 in 4 Maine children in struggle with hunger.
    6. Re:Who needs to hunt down textbooks in Finland? by jedidiah · · Score: 2, Interesting

      > Easy availability of credit means that individuals that wouldn't have gone go, and
      > those that would have gone to a cheaper school go to an expensive one instead.

      This isn't really a factor.

      In some states, the state universities are allowed to increase their
      tuition rates by a certain state mandated maxiumum every year. It is
      a limit and of course they don't have to "use" all of it but they do.
      This cap on tuition increases is signficantly greater than inflation.
      Due to compounding, these percentage increases build up consderably
      over time. This effect has been building up over decades.

      It occurs pretty much at a steady rate regardless of whether or not
      there is some sort of bubble or recession going on.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    7. Re:Who needs to hunt down textbooks in Finland? by cdrudge · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Depending on how you want to include in counting the number of libraries, there may be about the same number as McDonalds. If you only consider public and academic (college/university) libraries, they are about equal. However this does exclude nearly 100k school libraries, special libraries (private, medical, law, corporate), or government/military libraries. Source

  2. Is this even illegal? by eyal0 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In the USA, reselling a book is totally legal. I imagine that renting one is, too. Which part of the copyright law are they accused of breaking?

  3. Re:Wait... by 91degrees · · Score: 4, Interesting

    But even if it did, what difference does it make?

    You can't make arbitrary demands on a purchaser after the purchase. What if it said "You agree to pay the author a subscription to continue using this book after a year"?

  4. Re:Coming from an author... by MichaelSmith · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Arthur Clarke used to say that if anybody sent him a book to sign (and send back) he would just give it to a local library. He may lose a sale by doing that but it is more likely he will gain a sale. When I was young I mainly read library books, and books borrowed from other sources. I only bought books when I had the money, which wasn't very often.

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
  5. Re:Wait... by jsiren · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In Finland authors get compensated for library loans of their books ("kirjastokorvaus"). It's recognized that copies in public libraries account for some lost sales, so a small compensation is paid.

    About DVD rentals: It seems that the rental DVD itself is no different from a purchase copy, but it comes with a "permission to rent." Should I happen to lose or destroy the disc, I would be charged something like 45 to 90 e (asked a movie rental place once). I don't know if that's the real price or if the shop has an insurance that pays for the rest - or if it's an incentive not to lose the DVD...

    --
    Usage: km/h for speed (kilometers per hour); kph for very slow impulses (kilopond hours).
  6. Re:Coming from an author... by mspohr · · Score: 4, Interesting
    When you send something to somebody in the mail, you are giving it to them. They can do anything they want with it. It is no longer your property.

    This is firmly established in the US because companies used to send unsolicited merchandise to people and then demand payment. They sent it to you, you can keep it.

    --
    I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
  7. Re:Smell of blood/books in the morning, etc. by Aris+Katsaris · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "Freedom of speech is not freedom to steal."

    Copyright violation isn't stealing. It isn't depriving anyone of any object, physical or informational, at all.

    "If you want to make point, boycot abusive companies, don't continue using their products,"

    Yes, I was like you recently, thinking that only abuses of copyright were a problem. In truth, in the informational age, all copyright is a massive problem, as the companies nowadays don't provide ANYTHING of value for the items they want to be paid for -- neither transport and distribution, nor printing, nor anything at all.

    Copyright-dependent companies have now become mere parasites on the artists and the consumers both.

  8. Publicity by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The first thing that I thought after reading the TFS, "this BookaBooka thing is a wonderful idea, I wonder if there's one around here".

    No, really. No matter how I look at it, it sounds great. It's perfectly moral (despite the fact that I'm not anti-copyright in general), since all books have been bought. Authors have been compensated. And it's a service valuable for the society as a whole.

    I hope this lawsuit dies the way it deserves, and the idea catches on around the world.