Delhi High Court rejects publishers plea against photocopying of textbooks

Textbooks in the US are insidiously over priced. Even the International editions, basically black and white paperbacks are still quite expensive.

I buy a fair amount of textbooks for self study. Current year additions of Math and Science books are around $200 and solution manuals are around $50. Most of these books rarely change there content. For instance a basic Calculus textbook that is in its 12th edition is around $200. More advanced books for upper division / grad level can go as high as $300 for a few hundred page paperback.

"Copyright is intended to increase and not to impede the harvest of knowledge. It is intended to motivate the creative activity of authors and inventors in order to benefit the public," the court said."

You might need to get 8-10 books to cover a particular topic in depth. That could easily put you over $2000. If you have to pay for that out of pocket most people simply can not afford it.

Its an impressive ruling by the Indian Courts.