Comments on: Textbook Torrents

By: Drizerd

Drizerd — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:52:51 +0000

Textbooks have gotten so expensive that I wasn’t able to afford a single one of mine this semester. If I would have bought all of them it would have cost about 1200-1500. It is outrageous. So I am trying to do my best without a single textbook.

By: LankySam

LankySam — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:07:26 +0000

gosnuffy.com offers a way for students to trade books among themselves. It has over 6500 universities, campuses, and institutes. It allows students to sell books to other students at the same campus. That way they don’t need to ship books and don’t loose money to the middle man.

By: Jacob

Jacob — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:51:06 +0000

Technically as long as it is used for research/academic purposes downloading free versions, or using/creating “unauthorized” versions or copies of the text book is for the most part covered by the “Fair Use Defense” provision in U.S. and most International Copy Right Laws. To conclude that this constitutes as stealing, degrades the progress that the general world society has achieved since the days of holy/nobility persons that kept the majority of the population they governed by making education too expensive/unobtainable.

By: lily

lily — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:58:22 +0000

I wished i could afford all of my textbooks each semester. And I wished the Library had multiple copies of the books we need. I also wished there were enough scholarships for everyone who have trouble affording to make someone out of themselves. I have to rely on downloading, I’m a darn good student and i work hard to get where i am. If there were alternate means such as universities providing more textbooks in their libraries, and scholarships, or even vouchers/credit in their book shop to grant students who are experiencing financial difficulty, downloading wouldnt be an option. When i get my medical degree i will become someone and repay my debt into society.

By: cheap used textbooks addict

cheap used textbooks addict — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:22:26 +0000

I used to pay 162$ for 1 books and I need at least 5 books every semester. After the first semester, I got smarter ( and broke too.) So I figure out a way to cut my textbooks expenses down by recycling them every semester. So sometimes I don’t pay for textbooks but I even make a little money buying them low and selling a bit higher. It’s quite helpful since I don’t need to pay 1500$ for books. I include all of the tips I used in my site. Feel free to browse around there. If torrent doesn’t meet with some legality, it would be very helpful for students. A bit sad that every effort to help us got slammed by some other corporation.

By: Rick Norwood

Rick Norwood — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 07:00:51 +0000

Publishing is a dying trade. The service offered is nothing more than storing information on something that you can hold in your hand (a book, a CD, or a DVD,etc.).
Obviously the need for that service is vaporizing at 800KB/sec.
My point being that the CEO of McGraw Hill would never even see the humor in that statement unless someone half his age explained it. He is old and he is rich and innovation scares him.
If I was the CEO of McGraw Hill:
1. Store EVERY volume the company has EVER published on a company website.
2. Offer membership to that site for a REASONABLE monthly subscription. (I would suggest $19.95 a month until word gets out.)
3. Now update those volumes when new discoveries and/or new techniques require.
4. Present this new business model to every school that you deal with and watch how quickly they decide to choose your text over the competition.
5. Start bragging about how many trees you are NOT killing.
6. Sit back and relax because you have guaranteed profitability for decades to come.

Or just be a curmudgeon and file bankruptcy in less than a decade.

By: Joe cannot

Joe cannot — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:46:39 +0000

Did you know that the average student will spend over $500 per term buying textbooks? Seems like an awful lot of money to buy textbooks that often get opened one time, right? Well, with Chegg.com, you will save hundreds!
So stop wasting your money and start renting from Chegg.com. I’m on the bandwagon and I’ve saved enough to buy all my term papers! Not really, but I have saved some serious cash by Chegging my books. I have a promo code that will save you an additional 5% off your total order, useCC114222.
Want proof?
Essential Biology by Campbell, Reece & Simon is $83.18 if you buy it on Amazon.com. If you rent it on Chegg.com, it’s only $11.78. That’s a savings of over $71!
It’s so simple, just search for the books you need and place your order. Chegg will ship them to you fast and at the end of the term you ship them back for free. What’s really cool is that they plant a tree for every book that you rent.
Don’t forget to visit Chegg.com and use promo code CC114222.

By: broklynite

broklynite — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:33:44 +0000

What is this “library” of which you speak?

Seriously though, there is a problem with libraries- limited copies. I’ve certainly had classes where you would have to plan elaborate strategies in order to get the one copy of the book in the library because nobody could afford it.

By: Q

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:23:02 +0000

hello, I thought this might be interesting to know. The largest legal and free reserve of books that available for everyone is the LIBRARY.

I have been using textbooks from the library at UT Austin for all my general chemistry, physics, math and even some upper classes such as Transport Phenomena, Chemical Engineering Analysis, Matrices, Linear Algebra, Physical Chemistry… and so on. Some of the books have 2 hours limit on them, so I can’t really check them out. But that’s better than paying $120 for each.

I have also been able to find other books as well. There are few books that I’m really interested in and not in the library. This wealth of knowledge is going to waste as most of the students are not aware of how many books the library have.

Yes. You can just come by, say hi, pick up the book, check it out. For free. And renew it online.

Of course the book is never yours. However, if you are in the pursuit of the knowledge, I think that should be enough. Being able to read the books is good enough.

However, we do want a sense of ownership. When you download the book, it’s yours, you don’t have to check them out, renew them or anything. It’s yours. I think this sense of ownership is similar to owning a physical object, therefore the price.

Textbooks are in a different genre of books. They are not meant to be read more than twice. They are meant to be studied, and take notes from. Do that, learn the knowledge in there, then the book means little to you. You would only use it as a reference, but wikipedia can do that better. For free.

There are ways to gain knowledge. Let us not get down to just torrenting. There is a wealth of knowledge out there for you to learn. Check out your local library or better yet, a university library, instead of trying to find the torrent that has your textbook.

Good luck on your studying.

By: Bonofied Rich

Bonofied Rich — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 09:27:19 +0000

What you are seeing is what i call greed capitalism. We are a capitalist nation, which isn’t the problem, its greed that is the problem. Yes i agree with all the people who are struggling to pay for books i am one of them. Stealing is defined as taking someone else and making it your own without their permission. To be quite honest even if we pay for the book we still don’t own it. We just own the right to use the information inside the book. So me not paying for the book just means i am not paying for the right to use their information which in reality is information gained from public knowledge.