Given that a year's worth of textbooks can run a thousand bucks, it's not surprising that textbook piracy is up. The number of registered users on TextbookTorrents.com has increased 20 percent since August 2008, according to according to BCHeights.com, the Boston College newspaper.
And while students turn to illegal alternatives, academics and publishers still don't get it. The fact is, book prices are set so prohibitively high, publishers are practically begging students to download bootleg copies of books.
"Though there is a high cost of education overall, even $1,000
spent on textbooks is a small amount when compared to the actual cost of tuition," said Fred Yen, a professor at Boston College Law School, in a BCHeights.com interview.
He sort of makes a point. If you're paying $40,000 for annual tuition, what's another thousand on books? But on its own, $1,000 is just a riproaringly insane amount to pay for textbooks. Especially since the text doesn't change much -- a publisher can slap on a new foreword and jack up prices for the "updated" edition of a book.
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