Lupo Can Has a Banhammer!!!

[Kereminde]

My vote? He's copying them on his personal printer, then returning them, so he has the books free. then he sells copies cheap to other dirtbags he knows.

Why not? That's how my dad got through his college textbook costs. For Mechanical Engineering.

Not exactly sure how it worked, but one person in a study group would buy the books and pass out copies of chapters at the start of the month. Whether he was selling it back or reselling it later, I don't know. I do know the books cost a *LOT* for a guy who was not being paid enough to go to college, in a position which required a degree.

Me? I bought used whenever possible, and I had a scholarship which pretty much covered the cost of books. Tuition payment was on my own wallet.

[mariamousie1]

My guess is he was copying them and selling them for a cheaper price than the bookstore. Good on you guys for banning him!

[Darkforge]

scanning them would take a while but would potentially be worth it if he was making enough money out of it - thats why he probably returns them on the last day or a day late, he spends all week scanning non stop. It means he does 1 weeks hard work and then gets to sit back on the profits for the rest of the time.

I'm surprised he didn't go to the library though, but there must be some reason (He couldn't provide them with a syllabus so he probably wasn't a student so couldn't take them out of the student library and it's a rare public library that would have those books, or maybe my active conspiracy finding section ofmy mind is on overdrive)

[csquared]

When customers hit certain target amounts of money spent, we send them ‘lil bonuses.

I'm betting that he was scamming the rewards system. Get the reward and return the books. That would explain why he bought so many and the same ones multiple times.

[EricKei]

If he returned every single book he bought, does that affect the bonus he got from buying the books in the first place? If the bonus was based purely on the buying (and not the returning) maybe that's why he was doing it?

I certainly hope that his returns negated the bonuses >_>

As for making copies -- In the US, at least, that right there is probably copyright infringement, whether he sells it or not. (note - not a lawyer) -- There's a reason Kinko's refuses to make copies from actual books.

The best part is, actually reprinting the ENTIRE book would likely cost more than buying the actual book. Paper may be cheap, but ink and toner most certainly are NOT; with the notable exception of that one (badly overpriced) home printer (from hp??) that prices its black ink cartridges at 5 bucks a pop...

[Darkforge]

I doubt the rewards would be worth the risk, also then why would he wait until so late? you wouldn't wantot take the risks.

If you're scanning them then selling pdf copies on disc, or online (or even in a kindle readable format..) costs almost nothing to distribute.

it's not unsurprising that there are students out there willing to pay a handful of dollars for an e-copy instead of a £200 dollar textbook - especially if they are taking their laptops into every lecture (and it's lighter than the book as well)...

i'm not surprised, I mean I think it's wrong, I mean if you want the convenience of an electronic copy why not buy the actual ebook from an official source, or buy the book, scan it and put it on your laptop yourself (keeping the original book for just in case you get an open book exam or if the file gets corrupted)

[Sapphire Silk]

Surely I am not the only one who sees the irony of a LAW student basically stealing all his textbooks?

Irony? What irony?

I certainly hope that his returns negated the bonuses >_>

As for making copies -- In the US, at least, that right there is probably copyright infringement, whether he sells it or not. (note - not a lawyer) -- There's a reason Kinko's refuses to make copies from actual books.

The best part is, actually reprinting the ENTIRE book would likely cost more than buying the actual book. Paper may be cheap, but ink and toner most certainly are NOT; with the notable exception of that one (badly overpriced) home printer (from hp??) that prices its black ink cartridges at 5 bucks a pop...

It is copyright infringement . . . as a teacher I'm pretty well informed on Fair Use. Fair Use lets you copy a few pages for your personal use. Not the whole book for yours or anyone else's use, even if no money changes hands.

This is precisely why Kinko's refuses to copy actual books without a signed permission to copy. Those aren't impossible to get: I have written permission to use certain photos from a book and put them on Moodle for my students.

I used to see a lot of RPG books and magazines scanned and put up on P2P networks by gaming geeks. These guys would buy a new release, scan it, and put it on P2P for free to anyone who wanted it. Not good for the gaming companies, who operate on very slim margins (I know . . . I've written for the industry).

Printing out those books IS very expensive. However, if you're willing to deal with an ecopy, then there is no cost to you at all.

i'm not surprised, I mean I think it's wrong, I mean if you want the convenience of an electronic copy why not buy the actual ebook from an official source, or buy the book, scan it and put it on your laptop yourself (keeping the original book for just in case you get an open book exam or if the file gets corrupted)

I'm not sure I get it either . . .but the rewards must be there or he wouldn't keep doing it.

Amazon has made it hard to share books on the Kindle, specifically to prevent what you are talking about. Ditto with the iPad.

And electronic textbooks are not always cheap. The publisher of the textbook I'm using charges over $250 for Volume I. The e copy still costs over $100. While it is still better than the printed version, some people don't do well with ebooks.

[EricKei]

It is copyright infringement . . . as a teacher I'm pretty well informed on Fair Use. Fair Use lets you copy a few pages for your personal use. Not the whole book for yours or anyone else's use, even if no money changes hands.

Thanks! I wasn't quite sure, hence my hesitation.

As for RPG books -- There are sites out there like Drive Thru RPG that allow you download fully-licensed, legal PDF forms of many RPG books, many of which cost less than half of the paper editions. It's a great way to build up a (legal) e-library while still supporting the original publishers; it's also a good way to find out-of-print editions of same (those are usually the first ones to get converted out of any given line -- after all, they're not selling them in dead tree format any more. It's a good way to eke out a few extra smackers from an old edition that has since been superceded)

[depechemodefan]

Scrappy reminds me of Jackie Kennedy. I read she would go to department stores, buy like10-20 shirts, 10-20 another thing, 10-20....you get the idea. Then she returns them (or get the secretary to return them).

I think Scrappy just have delusions he is going to law school and gets an extra kick fucking you guys up by returning the books past the date.

[EricKei]

Scrappy reminds me of Jackie Kennedy. I read she would go to department stores, buy like10-20 shirts, 10-20 another thing, 10-20....you get the idea. Then she returns them

My aunt is apparently notorious for this. When I once made the mistake of saying OK when she wanted me to tag along with her on a 'shopping trip', the first three hours were nothing but returns of stuff she'd bought in the last week or two. Many places knew her by NAME.

[Darkforge]

There are sites out there like Drive Thru RPG that allow you download fully-licensed, legal PDF forms of many RPG books

not to take the thread entirely off topic, but that sounds cool, i'll have to check it out tonight

[fireheart]

I'm actually tempted to buy one of my textbooks as an e-copy because it's going to cost me $130 for the semester otherwise. The only thing I can say, is THANK GOD FOR READERS (basically a bunch of books that are sold on-campus at the start of each semester, for a LOT of subjects. Consists of a bunch of handouts (ie. a few pages or almost a whole chapter) from diferent books, which are then bound together, separated by tutorial and then sold on campus for around $10-$30.)

Otherwise I'll be hitting up ebay or selling some of MY old textbooks to pay for it.

[Mycroft]

Re: classic returners - that can be profitable for the company (and why I am preaching to the choir, who knows more about retail than I ever want to, I don't know). I know somebody who works warehouse for $FASHION_BRANDS_STORE - where, for instance, a T-Shirt costs $65, because it has the name "Prada" on it - and he says he boxes up and ships $20k worth of clothes to several clients every week. They take what they want, and return the rest with a cheque for the difference. If "my aunt" buys $1000/week of stuff, and returns $700, she still seems like the kind of customer one wants to have, and know by name.

But "returning EVERYTHING"? Especially where it's clear that the person probably is copying and returning? Yeah, no.

[taxguykarl]

Soooo...What are the chances of him coming back with more books next semester?

It wouldn't surprise me; though, it sounds like this SM will stick to his guns and Scrappy will eat the cost--if he is not ejected on sight first.

[The Electric Fetus]

if you can, could you tell us at least approximately what his 'rewards' were from his credit card? rather curious.