In college the books are so damn expensive so what I mean is that in the college library they have a big copying machine & I want to know if I should copy all my books that I should buy at full price in a copying machine. For example my history book is 500 pages & cost $120 but on the copying machine to copy a page is 5 cents so if I copy all 500 pages at 5 cents each then I can copy the whole book for $25 ($0.05 times 500=$25) Is this illegal or can I go to jail for it or should I totally do it to save big bucks on book fees. The only problem is that it would take an hour or longer to copy a 500 page book depending on how fast the machine copys each page.
2006-09-20 11:08:37 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous in Education & Reference ➔ Higher Education (University +)
I understand your dillemma. If you are flatbroke I think you should check the university library and see if they have any textbooks on reserve. I suggest looking at amazon.com, BN.com, half.com somestimes if youre lucky you can find 100+ dollar books for twenty five dollars, and when you are done you can resell the book for the same price or more depending on the venue you sell it through. As for the copying of the book different books have different copyright restrictions so it may or may not be illegal. But Man! just look online before you take up two hours of your time copying a book you may not even use and cannot sell back! Good Luck Bro!
2006-09-20 11:16:19 · answer #1 · answered by Roger E 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hehehe, I've done this, and yes you save so much money. Make sure to do it yourself, the copy place will not do it for you. Do it double-sided, the paper is already much thicker than textbook paper so you'll be adding a lot of weight to your books. I would wait until you recieve your syllabi if you can, because you probably won't be assigned the entire book for reading, probably no more than half of it actually. So you won't have to copy the whole thing. Also, you can't do this with any book that says "no return if unwrapped" or anything like that. Good luck!
2006-09-20 11:18:26 · answer #2 · answered by Heidi 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Go to campusbooks.com. They find the lowest price if you type in your ISBN number and it will be much less of a hassle than copying all of those pages for every single book. Also, when the semester's over you can sell them back online for a pretty good return or sell them to other students on campus by posting signs up. You will save lots of money that way.
2006-09-20 12:47:05 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes it is illegal.
No, you are unlikely to go to jail for it.
Yes, It will piss off the librarian big big time.
Yes, It is very mess, you going to lug 500 pages about the campus.
Try Used books at Amazon.com or even Ebay. I get mine at less than 1/2 price almost all the time, Be sure to check for the right edition of your text. Brand new editions are a little more, but still seem to be readily available.
2006-09-20 11:24:16 · answer #4 · answered by Squid Vicious 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As a fellow college student w/ huge book fees, I understand. But the hassle of copying all thos pages, keeping them together (you can't staple 500 pages) and risking smudging and unreadability is not worth the cost. Also, most classes require you to bring your books. Professors probably won't like seeing you copying illegaly.
2006-09-20 11:17:51 · answer #5 · answered by Katyushka 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yeah, that's a copyright infringement to copy the entire book. It's one thing if the text isn't the primary one in class, but think of all the hassle it would be.
Why don't you see if you can find a used book? Even if it's a new edition, the editors of the book never reinvent the wheel and write an entirely new book, so that would work.
2006-09-20 11:15:33 · answer #6 · answered by everfair 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Technically you are not supposed to do that. I don't know if you can go to jail. I have, however, seen a lot of kids do it and get away with it. Mostly because they keep the "books" at home. I never had a class that required me to take my book to class.
Another thing that you could also do is go to your library and just rent the books on reserve whenever you need them. And also, half.com sells books really cheap, surprisingly.
2006-09-20 11:15:55 · answer #7 · answered by Alucard 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
hey, unless you go out and publicize it or somewhere copying the book screaming "hey look at me, im going against the copyright laws of this book. look at me!" then yeah you might get in trouble.
you have to do what you have to do in college. ive seen people do it. but like you said some of my books were so huge it's just know way in hell i was going 2 copy the entire book. i did get most of my books off of amazon.com or campusi.com
2006-09-20 11:16:20 · answer #8 · answered by WhosThatGirl? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Technically it's a violation of copyright law and thus illegal. But suppose you did it. What guarantee would you have that the bookstore would take it back? It would no longer be in mint condition, and unless you could show that you had dropped the course, they might not accept it....
2006-09-20 11:15:03 · answer #9 · answered by keepsondancing 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I actually have seen people in my college photocopy books, but only the chapters thier doing, not the whole thing.
2006-09-20 15:39:13 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋