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Anti-Piracy Patent Aims to Stop Students from Sharing Textbooks

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Re: Anti-Piracy Patent Aims to Stop Students from Sharing Textbooks

#31

Post by CamperBob2 »

pdeuchler wrote: post #19

Unfortunately, this is nothing new for students. I have been forced to buy institution specific versions of my books (which simply means they regenerated the practice problems), preventing me from seeking cheaper bookstores like Amazon or the mom & pop down the street. I have been forced to purchase physical CD's with serial codes to access lecture notes (of course, only provided at the school bookstore). But worst o…

In my very humble opinion, the greed has gotten so out of control that it's hard for the publishers to see what is even wrong with forcing students to PAY TO DO HOMEWORK

How is that not the whole idea behind college, in general?

Re: Anti-Piracy Patent Aims to Stop Students from Sharing Textbooks

#32

Post by crusso »

vibrunazo wrote: post #18
anigbrowl wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You cannot own an algorithm or idea. Imagine if Newton owned the laws of motion, imagine if he owned calculus. And you can't copyright them either. How can someone own an arrangement of words or sounds. Because that person made it? Are you saying people have no right to own the things they make?

> Because that person made it? Are you saying people have no right to own the things they make? "I can only see so far because I'm standing in the shoulder of giants." Imagine if you had to pay for every one of the thousands little concept that your own idea (inevitably) derives from. That system would be unsustainable. We can only make progress because we can expand and improve on what were created before.

Who is arguing that one should pay for every previous idea that a new idea is derived from?

That's a straw man.

The argument for paying people for new IP is that for a limited time we should offer rewards for people to add to the collective knowledge of our society.

So really in terms of your argument, the consumer isn't paying for "standing on the shoulder of giants" either. The consumer of IP is only paying for the incremental value added by the creator of the content.

As a society, we discovered that rewarding producers adds to the useful aggregate more than just hoping that they'll add the same amount of content without compensation.

Re: Anti-Piracy Patent Aims to Stop Students from Sharing Textbooks

#33

Post by cabalamat »

pdeuchler wrote: post #19

Unfortunately, this is nothing new for students. I have been forced to buy institution specific versions of my books (which simply means they regenerated the practice problems), preventing me from seeking cheaper bookstores like Amazon or the mom & pop down the street. I have been forced to purchase physical CD's with serial codes to access lecture notes (of course, only provided at the school bookstore). But worst o…

Some universities behave unethically. Fortunately, organisations like Udacity are likely to make this an unviable business model in future.

Re: Anti-Piracy Patent Aims to Stop Students from Sharing Textbooks

#34

Post by jhspaybar »

This already is in widespread use, not sure how the professor expects this patent to hold up in any way. I had a 4 quarter French language requirement for my major for which I needed to purchase a $125 book, and then a $99 online fee to have access to the homework that was 20% of my grade. The real kicker? My $99 online fee only covers 12 months, 3 quarters is a calendar year without summer school, that fourth quarter requires an extra fee to gain access to the homework materials again.

My physics classes also do something similar through the "masteringphysics.com" website I believe.

This is nothing new, and it's brutal for students. I can usually get through a quarter with 4-6 classes for under $100 in book costs if I buy used, old editions, etc but once a teacher throws one of these online requirements my way the costs of a quarter skyrocket to unreasonable levels.

Re: Anti-Piracy Patent Aims to Stop Students from Sharing Textbooks

#35

Post by sakopov »

"No access code means a lower grade, all in the best interests of science." "Students who don’t pay can’t participate in the course and therefore get a lower grade."

It's all about purchasing power, folks. You knowledge only matters a little. Please, do pirate books. For crying out loud, knowledge can and should be pirated if it cannot be afforded.

Re: Anti-Piracy Patent Aims to Stop Students from Sharing Textbooks

#36

Post by crusso »

vibrunazo wrote: post #20
jrubinovitz wrote: post #7

I really wouldn't mind paying for a textbook access code for every class I take, if the price was actually reasonable (unlike new textbook prices). In an ideal world: go around the print publishers and digitally publish books with an access code at a low price with nearly all proceeds going to the author. I have teachers that won't actually use textbooks because kids at my school cannot afford them. Professors will a…

> I really wouldn't mind living in a world where you can have a monopoly over ideas, if I am one of the few who can afford paying for those ideas. I would. It has much further and deeper implications in the bigger picture than just that one textbook that you could afford.

Twisting someone's words but making it appear as a quote is something I normally only see on Reddit or Fark.

Could you please avoid that tactic here?

Thanks.

Re: Anti-Piracy Patent Aims to Stop Students from Sharing Textbooks

#37

Post by scotty79 »

anigbrowl wrote: post #14
moistgorilla wrote: post #2

I'm tired of this. I am not going to pay for any product I can pirate anymore. I don't even feel guilty about it. If the artist wants money he should set up a donations account so I can pay him directly. I'm tired of these middlemen. I'm also tired of people preaching about how piracy is unethical. A copied piece of data is not equivalent to a lost sale. People cannot own information. You cannot own an algorithm or i…

You cannot own an algorithm or idea. Imagine if Newton owned the laws of motion, imagine if he owned calculus. And you can't copyright them either. How can someone own an arrangement of words or sounds. Because that person made it? Are you saying people have no right to own the things they make?

I made co2. If you want to pass it through your lungs you shuld pay me.

I made a joke about that one guy being fat. Whenever someoness tells my joke or some along that line he should pay me because I did it.

Re: Anti-Piracy Patent Aims to Stop Students from Sharing Textbooks

#38

Post by bdonlan »

IvoDankolov wrote: post #9

No access code means a lower grade, all in the best interests of science. I ... no. I can't even... I'm sorry, but I find it very hard to summon an inkling of sympathy for the publishers' plea against piracy when I see measures like that. When I failed calculus because I didn't prove a theorem the way it was in the lecture notes and then was insane enough to argue the point, I thought it was pretty stupid. Here, I do…

Of course, it's also possible this professor got the patent to ensure that nobody could use this technique. Unfortunately, many courses already are :/

Re: Anti-Piracy Patent Aims to Stop Students from Sharing Textbooks

#40

Post by IvoDankolov »

tassl wrote: post #24

I have always thought that Universities should offer self-contained courses, with original homework and practice, specially in technical courses. Books should be considered as reference/reinforcement materials, never a requirement for anything. After the irruption of Coursera and Udacity, I heard a couple of professors in my university talking about the impact those courses can have in the future. They saw themselves…

If you ask me, TA should be the more glorious position. There's just no point in speaking the same thing in front of 200 students every (half) year in front of 200 people with little to no interactivity. So what's the point of having that person in front of the class and not some recording?

Oh, right, there isn't one. There hasn't been for some years now, but the academia has had neither internal nor external incentives to innovate. Some might say giving the students the best possible experience should be an intrinsic motivation for professors. A shame it doesn't work that way.

I think though that TAs in Coursera/Udacity are not active enough. Given that tens of thousands (hundreds?) take a course, they can't afford to be. It makes me think that this model is not sustainable either.

I mean, in our day and age, dabbling in an area of science/art should not be a hard or expensive thing to do. And if you're willing to find your own information, it mostly isn't. But if everyone wanted to dabble in computer science and learn some basics, there just aren't enough TAs in the world to provide assistance.

There certainly would be enough learners, though! And I think that's a much more sustainable model. Udacity and Coursera both have active forums, I've heard Salman Khan mention it, and even in that "Intoduction to AI class" that did not have discussion forums from the start, people organized study groups, forums and subreddits all on their own.

Let's make it "cool" to study together and help others. Social routines will do the rest.

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