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Comment by jrubinovitz | Hacker News Reader

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 actually photocopy the material for us.

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In addition to issues such as books being "print on demand", out of print, 5 new editions every year, etc. Didn't need many textbooks for CS, but the ones I did need were a pain to get.

> 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.

They're not trying to charge for access to the ideas. They're charging for the explanation of those ideas in text that a team of people crafted. They're charging way too much for it, but that's only because universities let them.

Exactly. The ideas are already out there. Charging for information that's out there when you have a semi-monopolistic hold on the market through the collusion of most higher institutions of education is unethical.

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