Community College forces students to buy only their e-books

[tproc86]

What is the name of your state? Kansas
I attend a local community college. Each year I opt to purchase my books from an outside retailer because the bookstore is extremely overpriced. This year I enrolled in a class and their online book is $108 so I purchased it for $20 through an outside retailer. I have recently been informed that if I don't purchase their version of the book, I will automatically lose 10% of my grade. I just feel like this is not right. They are tying their book purchase to our grade. Is this legal? I just feel like as a consumer I should have the right to purchase class materials from any retailer I prefer without risk of my grade being lowered.

 

[cbg]

Is the one you purchased identical in every way? I mean the same edition, page numbers are the same, headings, etc.?

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

The first thing I would do is ask the school to show me in writing where I was notified of the policy.

 

[adjusterjack]

I just feel like as a consumer I should have the right to purchase class materials from any retailer I prefer without risk of my grade being lowered.

Maybe not. As a student, when you enrolled in the college, you agreed to many things. That agreement is a contract and you are bound by it. There may even be rules for each class you take that you bind yourself to when you enroll in the class.

Check that out.

 

[cbg]

I can easily understand why the school might want all the students to be using exactly the same edition so as to reduce time spent in class looking for page number or headings, and without any risk of differing translations (if applicable).

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state? Kansas
I attend a local community college. Each year I opt to purchase my books from an outside retailer because the bookstore is extremely overpriced. This year I enrolled in a class and their online book is $108 so I purchased it for $20 through an outside retailer. I have recently been informed that if I don't purchase their version of the book, I will automatically lose 10% of my grade. I just feel like this is not right. They are tying their book purchase to our grade. Is this legal? I just feel like as a consumer I should have the right to purchase class materials from any retailer I prefer without risk of my grade being lowered.

You and the original eBook owner are probably violating the terms of use of the eBook, the eBooks of which generally grant only a single nontransferable license.

 

[stealth2]

Very often, the book published for use in a specific course differs from the same book published for general consumption. In addition to cbg's questions - are the end-of-chapter problems/questions exactly the same, both in numbering, wording and order?

 

[Mass_Shyster]

Is this legal?

There's no law prohibiting it, as far as I know.

I just feel like as a consumer I should have the right to purchase class materials from any retailer I prefer without risk of my grade being lowered.

Their circus, their monkeys.

 

[quincy]

The legality can depend on from which "outside retailer" he purchased the eBook.

Ebooks are not like selling/purchasing regular books. You are purchasing a license to use the book and the license is generally not one you can (to quote Kindle) "sell, rent, lease, distribute, broadcast, sub-license or otherwise assign any rights to the Digital Content."

I would question the large difference in price ($108 v. $20) and wonder if the cheaper eBook is an illegal copy or a counterfeit.

 

[FlyingRon]

It's been going on longer than ebooks were around. I always was leery of any class where the teacher wrote the "required" text.

 

[quincy]

Professors often assign as required reading a book they have authored. But there could be more involved here.

 

[not2cleverRed]

What is the name of your state? Kansas
I attend a local community college. Each year I opt to purchase my books from an outside retailer because the bookstore is extremely overpriced. This year I enrolled in a class and their online book is $108 so I purchased it for $20 through an outside retailer. I have recently been informed that if I don't purchase their version of the book, I will automatically lose 10% of my grade. I just feel like this is not right. They are tying their book purchase to our grade. Is this legal? I just feel like as a consumer I should have the right to purchase class materials from any retailer I prefer without risk of my grade being lowered.

If the book you purchased is identical to the one required for the course, and it is a legal copy (not violating copyright law), your recourse is to make a complaint with first the department chair, then the dean, then the ombudsman, etc. (Each institution has its own quirks in how things are administered.)

Determine whether this is the instructor's policy, the department's policy, or the college's policy. Who is dictating the policy and why will give you insight on what your options are.

Aside: Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and students used old fashioned paper books, people were known to share a copy or rely on using the school library having the text on reserve. One of my college roommates spent a lot of time in the library because she could not afford the textbooks, and read the ones on reserve there. New editions of books that were used for multiple semesters (think Calculus 1 and Calculus 2) often threw budget conscious students for a loop, as the editions frequently differed very little pedagogically, just having variations of the assigned problems. As long as the students turned in the correct homework assignment, I could not see checking their book's edition.

 

[cbg]

On the other hand, I took an English Literature course for fun not too long ago. I already had a copy of all the plays we were reading in an omnibus edition. It took exactly one class for me to realize how much easier it would be on me if I had the same edition with the same page numbers and where archaic English had all been translated the same way, and I began buying the edition recommended by the professor.

 

[Zigner]

You and the original eBook owner are probably violating the terms of use of the eBook, the eBooks of which generally grant only a single nontransferable license.

I think this is the most likely reason behind the policy. One likely cannot "buy" a "used" e-book.

 

[LdiJ]

It is true that many professors have authored the "required" textbooks. Almost every textbook that I used in graduate school was authored by the professor of the class.

I had one professor whose textbook was badly out of date, yet a new "edition" printed every year and the current edition was the only one allowed to be used. In fact, the professor admitted that the book was badly out of date and offered a free book to any student willing to update a couple of chapters. I happily volunteered but was surprised that no one else did.