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Textbook Torrents

HungryJoeHungryJoe
edited September 2010 in Everything Else
Suppose I had this friend who decided it might be a good idea to take some biology classes after work. Suppose further that she needed Jacquelyn Black's Microbiology: Principles and Explorations, 7th edition, but didn't want to pay nearly 150 bucks for it. Suppose also that she knows about Chegg, but just wants to have the damn book for free. Are there any torrent websites where such a hypothetical person might find a torrent (or just regular old download) of the hypothetical textbook she hypothetically needs? Hypothetically?

Oh yeah, suppose as well that she hypothetically can't find this book on TPB or Demonoid, or at least that's what she tells me in my supposition.

Comments

  • AprecheApreche
    Wow, that is an expensive one. Even used copies on Amazon are a ton of money.

    I don't know where to find a torrent except the usual places, however there is a money-saving strategy. Buy the used copy on Amazon for $100 or whatever. Then when the course is over, sell it on Amazon and make most of the money back.
  • SailSail
    edited September 2010
    There are also textbook rentals. You can rent the book for like $45 and ship it back when the course is over.

    I am kind of surprised that textbook piracy isn't more common.
    Post edited by Sail on
  • trogdor9trogdor9
    There are also textbook rentals. You can rent the book for like $45 and ship it back when the course is over.
    Suppose also that she knows about Chegg
    Also:
    I am kind of surprised that textbook piracy isn't more common.
    I think this is mostly because there are just so many textbooks to choose from in any given field. The chances of someone with the ability to scan entire textbooks owning the same textbook I need is very low.
  • SailSail
    Reading posts fully is sooo overrated.
  • RuffasRuffas
    There used to be a website that catered to the kind of thing you're describing, but it is now kaput. However if your theoretical person tried googling the ISBN and words like download, she might get lucky (I didn't see any though).
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    edited September 2010
    image
    Shut down.

    Might be a batch with it in somewhere.
    Post edited by Omnutia on
  • Nine BoomerNine Boomer
    image
    Shut down.

    Might be a batch with it in somewhere.
    This started up rather recently, it may be rather bare.
  • ninjarabbininjarabbi
    I've been wanting to do this for a while but I've never had any luck. I was hoping that this semester I could buy and ipad and pirate all of my books for it, but had no such luck. I mean if I find most of my books it would probably pay for itself by the second semester, but first I have to actually be able to find my books for it.
  • Victor FrostVictor Frost
    I am kind of surprised that textbook piracy isn't more common.
    Problem is that many textbooks change every year, thuse making it hard to keep up with. What you'd need is someone working in all the publishing houses and just uploading the books directly from the pdfs or whatever they use to layout the book for printing.
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    Or just cracking the copy protection of books on the Kindle.
  • Victor FrostVictor Frost
    Most textbooks aren't on Kindle.
  • SailSail
    Problem is that many textbooks change every year, thuse making it hard to keep up with.
    I think this is mostly because there are just so many textbooks to choose from in any given field. The chances of someone with the ability to scan entire textbooks owning the same textbook I need is very low.
    I don't buy that. First of all, there are many text books that are common throughout a lot of programs. Sure, it's going to be harder to obtain the school specific 2nd edition of the 7th edition calculus book that you need, but many textbooks are fairly "standard". For example, there are only about five or six different music theory textbooks used in the vast majority of college courses these days. If all of those got scanned into .pdf form, you'd pretty much be set for any music theory class because it's extremely likely that the course will use one of those textbooks.

    Second of all, textbooks are fucking expensive. People pirate comics all the time, and those are dirt cheap in comparison. It's no more time consuming to scan a 600 page textbook than it is to scan three volumes of manga. There is really nothing stopping textbooks from becoming widely piratable.
  • Victor FrostVictor Frost
    There is really nothing stopping textbooks from becoming widely piratable.
    textbooks arefucking expensive.
    That's exactly why there aren't many pirates. There aren't many people who will buy or rent a textbook just to scan the pages and upload it. That's why I was suggesting someone who works at the publishing house just upload the digital proofs.
  • SailSail
    edited September 2010
    No, the price should make it more desirable for pirates. Why do you think people spend so much time trying to crack the DRM on Photoshop?

    And obviously you wouldn't buy a textbook just to scan it. You don't buy a movie just to upload it. Obviously you are actually going to use the thing you paid money for. Letting other people use it is secondary with few exceptions.
    Post edited by Sail on
  • GeoGeo
    edited September 2010
    No, the price should make itmoredesirable for pirates. Why do you think people spend so much time trying to crack the DRM on Photoshop?
    That's the thing though. Photoshop is a piece of software which is easy to distribute and get your hands on once somebody puts it out there. Textbooks however, are physical media which is much more difficult to distribute.
    Post edited by Geo on
  • SailSail
    edited September 2010
    Textbooks however, are physical media which is much more difficult to distribute.
    Again, manga and comic torrents are everywhere.

    Perhaps if e-book readers and iPads were to become more common, textbook piracy would grow as well. People don't mind reading comics on their PC screens, but text-heavy pages are more unappealing.
    Post edited by Sail on
  • GeoGeo
    Textbooks however, are physical media which is much more difficult to distribute.
    Again, manga and comic torrents areeverywhere.
    Yeah, but you don't see people buying 12 textbooks for the sole purpose of scanning them in and putting them on the Pirate Bay.
  • SailSail
    edited September 2010
    Yeah, but you don't see people buying 12 textbooks for the sole purpose of scanning them in and putting them on the Pirate Bay.
    Who does this, and to what end? Unless there's some sort of reward system for uploading things other people haven't already, like there is on What.cd, why would people buy something they wouldn't normally just to upload it for free on the internet? I have never seen evidence of such a thing.
    Post edited by Sail on
  • GeoGeo
    edited September 2010
    Yeah, but you don't see people buying 12 textbooks for the sole purpose of scanning them in and putting them on the Pirate Bay.
    Who does this, and to what end? Unless there's some sort of reward system for uploading things other people haven't already, like there is on What.cd, why would people buy something they wouldn't normally just to upload it for free on the internet? I have never seen evidence of such a thing.
    What I mean is, there are a lot of people out there, such as the people who buy every single Marvel/DC comic that came out on a given week and upload them in a torrent for that week. That kind of behavior I feel is more attributable to comics since they are, again, much cheaper than textbooks. What I'm getting at is that even though textbooks are a hot commodity, the price that it would cost to buy them, scan them in, and make torrents out of the data is out of the realm for most people in terms of finances. That is my theory on why there are not as many textbook torrents out there.
    Post edited by Geo on
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    Due to the high price of a textbook, not many people would be eager to remove the binding in order to scan one. I'd think that that's the main reason you don't see too many textbook scans.
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    The components of the equation are: Money to buy book, effort to scan it, number of people helped by having the book, feeling of importance gained by process.

    Manga: Cheap, easy to scan on a chapter to chapter basis, lots of people read the popular ones that get scanned, scanners get lots of attention.

    Text book: Expensive, long to scan, relatively few helped, no big scan culture as textbook publishers are a lot more sue happy than manga authors.
  • ......
    I am kind of surprised that textbook piracy isn't more common.
    The problem is that you either have to print the entire thing yourself, or read it on a computer screen. Neither of which are very popular. Only recently ebooks have started to come up so it'll become more popular. The main problem here is that the scanners won't bother buying huge expensive books they have no need for themselves, scanning the hundreds of pages, and then staring at the ridiculously slowly rising download count. They'd more likely buy a cheap comic even when they're not going to read it themselves, scan that and put it out because that just cost a lot less and is more popular.

    Demand for textbooks is low (but forced, hence high prices) and of the people who need the book for classes, most will want a physical copy because it's easier and they can just sell it later, or don't even consider the possibility of pirating it. Compare that to EVERYONE AND THEIR GRANDMOTHER'S CAT wanting Photoshop and various forms of entertainment. You can see how someone would rather stroke their ego with high-profile/cheap stuff than low-profile/expensive textbooks.

    As you concluded yourself. Let's just wait for more e-books readers.
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    Nineless, you didn't swear once in that, are you feeling alright?

    On a side note, I've been meaning to try out this sheet feed scanner.
  • ......
    edited September 2010
    Nineless, you didn't swear once in that, are you feeling alright?
    I had just eaten pizza, and was replying to Sail. 'sides, He already pulled the weight of over-emphasis in this thread. Now fuck off.
    Post edited by ... on
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