191–200 of 217 posts
The case involves textbooks, but it's not really about textbooks. Instead it's about what "made lawfully under this title" means in the context of first-sale of physical items. Under one interpretation, if you buy a book outside the US, your ability to resell it in the US without permission depends on whether or not the book was made in the United States. Under the other interpretation, "lawfully made under this titl…
> "I have no idea what they will do." Stall. Send out some FUD. Maybe lobby for higher duties (as compared to tariff rates). But most of the goods that have sufficiently large price discrepancies are going to a digital manifestation anyway. So region-coding, DRM and the DMCA will (continue to) be the order of the day.
Not sure I see the distinction. According to the WTO, "customs duties on merchandise imports are called tariffs."
SCOTUSblog analysis: http://www.scotusblog.com/2013/03/opinion-analysis-justices-...
The older case Costco v. Omega was decided in an unsigned, unexplained per curiam decision. No one outside the court knows which four were on each side. Breyer won six votes for his strong pro-competition, pro-market, IP moderate position. Remember that in Eldred v. Ashcroft (q.v.) Breyer wrote one of two vigorous dissents against the essentially permanent copyright terms now in force. Former justice Stevens was the…
However, it is certainly true that a junior Associate Justice is not exactly a one-for-one replacement. Stevens' seniority and eloquence gave him an influence that will be hard to match.
Ironically, when he first came onto the Court, Stevens was not regarded as a particularly effective Justice, because he wasn't a team player. Perhaps it simply takes time. And in that sense, perhaps we're better off having Sotomayor in place earlier, rather than having Justice Stevens try to serve for a few more years.
The fact that this had to come up as a question to begin with demonstrates a critical flaw in our system. A Flaw with IP law, and with the ability of high dollar interests to influence our government.
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I am a lecturer in a math department. I also despise the textbook industry. Would you please recommend what I might do, subject to severe limitations of (1) time and (2) political clout within my department?
The most practical thing to do would probably be to start a book bank; or, just have the department library stock up on textbooks which can then be loaned to every class that uses it. Those that want to keep the textbook can buy their copy, but most, who just want to read the material for the course, will happily use it
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The worst offenders are the professors who write their own textbooks (even though there are dozens of better ones already available) and then use them in their courses, making money off each student. Maybe there should be conflict of interest rules in universities. The heroes in this game are the instructors who are creating open-source textbooks.
In maths at my local community college the teacher made lesson plans for the 3 latest editions of the book, allowing students to be able follow along with whatever one they had/could afford.
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The worst offenders are the professors who write their own textbooks (even though there are dozens of better ones already available) and then use them in their courses, making money off each student. Maybe there should be conflict of interest rules in universities. The heroes in this game are the instructors who are creating open-source textbooks.
I don't think it is wrong for a professor to recommend his book for his course. But it is definitely wrong for him to force his students to use them. We had a lot of profs in college who had written books and recommended them. But if you attended the classes you really didn't require the textbooks in the first place.
2. There is really no way to force a student to do anything.
Disclosure: I list some printed texts and reference books as required on my syllabi. I do this because I give open-book, open-note exams; but I do not allow the use of electronic devices (except pocket calculators).
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The best class I've ever taken was an intro class in statistics, in which the professor recommended... no book. He had an entire set of notes, practice problems (with extraordinarily detailed answers), and problem sets. Every year, he creates new exam problems so the old exams with answers become practice material. Honestly, his lecture notes (and all the additional material) is so vast that a student would hardly ha…
That answer is essentially, "each professor should write their own textbook", since an extensive series of notes intended to be used in a course of study, along with practice problems, is pretty much a draft textbook. That could be an interesting solution, but is mostly practical if you already have tenure, since it is a quick way to not get tenure otherwise. If you spend your junior professorship time writing a text…
You never learned to share?
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Tell your students not to purchase whatever books the department head has been bribed into using in the coming semester. Instead, spend a few hours curating online resources that may serve as notes for students; better yet, just photocopy the handwritten notes that every mathematics teacher I've ever had seems to have for each lecture they give :-) Otherwise, Paul's Online Math Notes tackles Calculus and ODEs, and II…
Our CS department head was co-author on 5 of the text books for the degree program. Several other professors were also co-authors. I don't think he needed to be bribed, I think he was whole-heartedly for it.
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As I've been able to tell, a lot of the fiat declarations by lecturers actually come from hard experience with students trying to rules lawyer their way to good marks. If they declare with absolute finality This Book at This Edition on This Page, then students don't have as much wiggle room for whining. They can't say the material wasn't covered because, "Yes, actually, it was on page 149 right here." Stuff like that…
What could possibly be "hard experience" with rules lawyering? Just say no. At least here if a student believes to be seriously wronged, he can take a re-exam in front of a committee with other prof's, not involving the teacher; and prove that his knowledge is really superior to the grade given, and this has happened; but it definitely isn't the easy way out - it works in cases of malice or prejudice, but not for laz…
If you have a weak department leadership, and a strong dean of students (one who favors student excuses), you can have a lot of students who will successfully challenge grades on dubious grounds.