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Re: Book buyers (was Re: Today's jaw dropper)



On Tue, 7 Oct 1997, John Mallinckrodt wrote:

On Mon, 6 Oct 1997, Rauber, Joel Phys wrote:

My guess its no more illegal than selling anything at a yard sell. The book
became my property when it was given to me, so I have a right to sell it
off.

It apparently isn't illegal, but I don't see why it couldn't be. Why
couldn't publishers simply license us the use of our desk copies with the
license agreement specifying that desk copies may not be sold.

In spite of common sense telling me "don't get involved", here goes:

When I get a complimentary copy it is generally stamped as such and is
accompanied by a statement that it is not to be resold. I take it that
this is a condition of accepting the complimentary copy. Whether this is
legally binding, I don't know. However, if I accept a book under the
condition that it is not to be resold then I will stick to that agreement.

Whenever
one of these sleazoids swings by, I make a point of loudly explaining to
any nearby student the central role of "this guy" in driving up their
textbook prices.

I'm not sure its totally fair to think of them as sleazoids (although I
confess I sometimes do). To some extent this is recycling and isn't any
more sleazy than someone coming in asking for your empy coke cans.

I may be guilty of overly dehumanizing these folks and overstating the
extent to which their practice affects textbook prices, but I do not
accept the moral equivalence of recycling aluminum and buying and selling
desk copies.

It would be equivalent iff these folks recycled the paper rather than
reselling it as a second hand text book.

One beef I do have is the number of complimentary copies some companies
give out. My biggest beef was a book on relativity and quantum mechanics
which was sent to every Dept of Physics faculty member for both years
that I was at Acadia University. So my colleagues and I each had two
copies of a textbook for a course we didn't even offer (r and qm were
separate courses). Furthermore, we didn't ask. Its not like my statement
above, which is based on a scenario like me phoning up companies to get
Optics books because I'm teaching a course in Optics - in which case I
feel morally bound to the conditions they put on my acceptance. No, in
this case I can see why a person might be tempted to make a few bucks when
someone comes to the door and asks if you have any books to get rid of.
Personally however, the thought is still repugnant. I'd rather just dump
them in a recycling bin, or perhaps dump them in the student's reading
room for reference (since we didn't offer an equivalent course, its not
affecting their sales in any way).

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| Doug Craigen |
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| For a growing list of Physics textbook errata: |
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