[p2p-research] lightfoot book sharing ?

[Michel Bauwens]

Even at $, 40-50, would be very expensive for the average thai student,
remember wages are one quarter here, so photocopying is the best option, the
copy shops are cheat (1 eurocent for 2 pages), and you get the books bound
etc... superb service ...

for new books, one person will buy the book, and the whole class will copy
..

On Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 5:43 PM, Andy Robinson <ldxar1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> TBH I've never come across the textbook pricing scam on this kind of scale
> in the UK - textbooks in the subjects I'm familiar with usually cost about
> £20 for a book which is often 400 pages or more, and are usually updated
> only every few years (so there's a very healthy second-hand market).
>
> Then again, the courses in these topics don't have assigned texts which are
> rigidly followed - they either use a range of assigned readings from
> different sources, or a rather loose reading list from which students can
> select (i.e. students are advised to consult one of a number of competing
> texts).  For university level courses, students would normally be expected
> to read 'primary' sources instead of textbooks anyway (these are either
> sections out of full academic books, academic journal articles, or
> 'classics').
>
> It sounds to me like in these other settings, there must be some kind of
> corrupt deal between university authorities, course designers (at department
> level), and textbook publishers, to require that courses be moulded to a
> specific text and that it be required that all students buy it.  There would
> also have to be a certain level of 'dumbing down' for university courses to
> be taught by textbook rather than primary reading.
>
> Is this a difference between different countries (UK vs US and apparently
> Thailand)?  Or perhaps between humanities/social sciences and hard sciences?
>
> Anyway, the file-sharing approach is just one of several available - actual
> text sharing and photocopying have been going on for ages.  Even at an
> extortionate 10p a sheet, assuming 2 pages per copy, a 250-page book could
> be photocopied for £12.50, a lot cheaper than the £80-ish equivalent of
> $120.
>
> The only things I've seen here at anything like £80 are limited-quantity
> hardbacks aimed at the university library market - where I think they are
> assuming high budgets, low demand, strong desire to purchase - but also that
> a large amount of sharing and copying will go on (basically, next to no
> end-users will buy their own copy).  That most of these books are also
> semi-available online confirms these suspicions.
>
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