What should I do?

[Fraggable]

I usually order my textbooks online for college rather than get ripped off by the college bookstore. I usually save 25-50% by buying used books online and it's always fun to sell my used books back to the bookstore for more than I paid for them.

I have 1 class this term, Technical Math 2. It requires a book called Basic Technical Mathematics with Calculus by Alynn Washington - 8th edition. At the bookstore it was $115 new, $95 used. At amazon, half.com, etc. it was no less than $80 used. I was debating just buying it at the bookstore when I found that phatcampus.com had it for $28. I checked around and verified with Verisign and found some other comments on the site to make sure it was real, then placed my order. I figured it might have been a pricing mistake, maybe it was supposed to be $82. They delivered it yesterday and it turn out it is not a hardcover book and has a different cover, however it does have the same contents. It took me a while to figure out why it was so cheap - on the back it plainly states that the book was produced for students outside the US and is NOT FOR SALE WITHIN THE US. It says if you bought the book in the US you should be aware that the vendor is in violation of copyright laws or something like that.

Now I re-read the description, double-checked the description and there is no mention whatsoever of this book being, well, illegal in the US.

Should I report them to whoever the copyright agency is? I can't imagine that calling them on it is going to do much, they'll probably just take it back and claim it was a mistake. I want to do the right thing, amazingly enough I try to abide by copyright laws because I believe an author should be paid for his work.

 

[dabuddha]

The same authors that release a new edition of their crap ass books (which contain maybe a change in 1-2 paragraphs) so students get screwed because they can't sell their old ones back while other students get screwed because they can't buy used copies of the newest editions?

dabuddha isn't bitter

 

[Fraggable]

Originally posted by: dabuddha
The same authors that release a new edition of their crap ass books (which contain maybe a change in 1-2 paragraphs) so students get screwed because they can't sell their old ones back while other students get screwed because they can't buy used copies of the newest editions?

dabuddha isn't bitter

Yes them, and I know what you mean having been stuck with $500+ of 'old' editions, but still what they did is illegal.

 

[Tobolo]

Sure do what you want. The question is, Can you use the book in class?

You may need to buy a book cover so they cant actually see the cover of the book, and therefore won't know.

 

[Fraggable]

As far as I can tell, the contents are identical to the real book. I can use it in class but I'm not sure if the teacher will notice or care. I also don't know if I'm at fault here considering the item description didn't say anything about it.

 

[j00fek]

if you can use it who cares

 

[jdini76]

do you beleive that students should be ripped off in order to learn? I would consider it an offset to the oodles of money you spent on other books.

 

[marulee]

Originally posted by: Fraggable
I usually order my textbooks online for college rather than get ripped off by the college bookstore. I usually save 25-50% by buying used books online and it's always fun to sell my used books back to the bookstore for more than I paid for them.

I have 1 class this term, Technical Math 2. It requires a book called Basic Technical Mathematics with Calculus by Alynn Washington - 8th edition. At the bookstore it was $115 new, $95 used. At amazon, half.com, etc. it was no less than $80 used. I was debating just buying it at the bookstore when I found that phatcampus.com had it for $28. I checked around and verified with Verisign and found some other comments on the site to make sure it was real, then placed my order. I figured it might have been a pricing mistake, maybe it was supposed to be $82. They delivered it yesterday and it turn out it is not a hardcover book and has a different cover, however it does have the same contents. It took me a while to figure out why it was so cheap - on the back it plainly states that the book was produced for students outside the US and is NOT FOR SALE WITHIN THE US. It says if you bought the book in the US you should be aware that the vendor is in violation of copyright laws or something like that.

Now I re-read the description, double-checked the description and there is no mention whatsoever of this book being, well, illegal in the US.

Should I report them to whoever the copyright agency is? I can't imagine that calling them on it is going to do much, they'll probably just take it back and claim it was a mistake. I want to do the right thing, amazingly enough I try to abide by copyright laws because I believe an author should be paid for his work.

See..

But report it after this semester in case they require for evidence to prove!