Would you care or resent so much if OP meant to download music? If so, I would you say you really have held a high moral standard; otherwise, it is just the issue of a conflict of interest.
**** them! Textbook is the biggest scam ever. I have no ethical problem in downloading textbooks. They change editions every year so you can't get the used book because you can't do the homeworks on the new editions. And some textbooks come with online access codes for the homeworks, and the access code can only be used once. So used books in this case is pretty much useless. If textbooks writers want to earn money, put their text book free online and get donations from the students. I bet they earn more money that way since the publishers take a huge chunk of money out of every textbooks sold. But till then, I will download as many textbooks as I can. It's not like tuition itself is not enough to bankrupt us.
I'd still think it was wrong, but I probably wouldn't have posted if it wasn't publishing-related. Pretty much the only reason I have a bittorrent client on my computer is to download Rockets pre-season games when Rocket2K puts them up (sucks being out of state during pre-season even with the League Pass). I've downloaded a few CD's over the years, but only CD's that I had purchased and either lost or cracked. Same with a few games that got lost over the years (Zork series, Tim Shafer games).
This is how I saved 95% on my book costs for college and it might work for you too. 1) Go to the bookstore and note down the ISBN numbers, Book title, author's name AND the Current edition. 2) Also, note down the price, laugh loudly, and put the book back on the shelf with a smirk. 3) Come back home, go on the internet and search for each book but look for one edition older. Use this site http://www.fetchbook.info/ 4) Make a list of the books with the ISBN numbers of the older editions. 5) Order these online from ebay, amazon, or other sites for 5% of what the current edition is selling for. Amazon even has preface/chapter contents for free for some of its books, so you can see what changes have occurred and basically confirm that there's really not much of it. UK amazon site has more information from my experience. 6) In a week or so, enjoy your book, and spend all the money you saved on a week worth of gas. Every semester I saved about $600 or so on books by doing this. You would be surprised at how little is changed from one edition to the next. Usually a really crap chapter is added in the end or so which your professor wont even cover anyways. If some problem sets are changed at the end of the chapter, not a problem at all. Just borrow your friend's or your professor's book for a day and just photocopy the pages with problem sets. If you plan on doing this, just start 1-2 weeks before classes start so that you can get the books on time. The only time this does not work is when your book is first edition or so. Even then I refused to get those books because I could get a book with very similar content online for about $5. I refuse to pay $200 for a textbook at campus bookstore, only to have the very same people bothering you to sell it back to them for $10 at the end of semester, just so that they can re-sell it as "Used, save more" for $175. Thieves!
That's true, but what if the professor assigns problems from the current edition of the textbook? Alot of times the problem numbers don't match up exactly even though the problems are the same.
I wouldn't worry too much, Scribo. Reason is, unlike music, movies and games, its kind of hard to enjoy reading a book online. Plus its not portable. A textbook is possible to read online, but not a work of fiction like say Harry Potter.
Zboy has a good strategy, not bulletproof, but the way to go. I would also check if the books are available for Kindle or Sony Ebook reader. With the purchase of those you get a few free books and if you plan to use it, its well worth it in the long run. I know more than a few people that are very satisfied with their kindle. I'm strongly against the idea of the "If I can't afford it, it's okay to steal it." Or the idea that it's not stealing at all. For books, of course if it's out of print, it's the publisher's fault for not meeting market demands and the buyer has little choice if they need it. I download music (or rip it from youtube) because I'm cheap and because I want the music right away, plain and simple, I'm not going to legitimize it. I stay away from books though, nothing beats a physical copy.
Honestly, if I had known about textbook torrent sites while in school, I'd would've gone that route quickly. While in school, I only used the Zboy trick later on when I figured out that editions barely change from one to the next. Spent a lot of time photocopying the questions, but SOOOOOOOO worth it compared to how much I save. If only I knew about all this earlier, I would've saved so much money considering all the NEW books I bought at $100-150 each(because they run out of used ones so quickly) dug really deep holes in my wallet.
The bookstore at my school now has all textbooks off-limits to students and they must pay for them before they touch them. Of course after paying for them you do have 1 week to return them but that's just another hassle. I seriously wonder how much the school is making off these things.
What if the textbook has an online component? That's the problem I'm running into with books for nursing school.
As I said,you can borrow the current edition form a friend/classmate and then photocopy only the pages with problem sets in them. If the problems are the same but the numbers have changed, I just make a note on my older edition copy indicating what the problem number is on the newer edition. It's a little bit of work but its like getting paid $200 an hour based on the amount of $$ you end up saving.
You can get the Book title, author, ISBN, and current edition form the front desk/help desk of the bookstore. If they have a printer,they can even print out this information for you. My university even had all this info online on their bookstore site. For chapter contents you can check the Amazon site or you can simply go to your professor and ask for syllabus. I usually went to my professors 1-2 weeks before the classes started to get the syllabus. This way I knew exactly which chapters/content would be covered in class from that book.
While they won't have all the obscure books needed for college courses, the public library is so so great ofr most other things. I haven't set foot in a Barnes and Noble since I got a serious itch for reading in my spare time (coinciding with finishing college... hm). If I don't finish a book in 3 weeks, I probably wouldn't have finished it anyway even if I owned it for eternity. Half Price Books is awesome but unless I'm buying someone a present, I hate buying something when I can just get it for free. Well, taxes aside... I almost wish people would pirate books at the same rate they pirate music. At least that'd mean we care about learning. Wouldn't that be crazy?
