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I wanted to buy a couple of books the other day.

Book A, a photography book was $84.15 and Book B, an IT manual was $74.95; a total of $169.10.

Neither book was in stock and had to be ordered in from the publishers, possibly in the States. ETA 10-20 working days.

What do I find at Amazon.com?

Book A is $US39.95, Book B is $US29.69, shipping and handling via air express is $US38.97. Total $US108.61 or $A135.76. Almost $A35.00 cheaper!

I ordered the books last Sunday and they were delivered to my door today.

Unbelievable!

Publish the ISBN numbers of the books. There are several excellent resources on the internet on which people trade used books.

I have another question. Suppose, I found a book in our local library. The library provides students with the photocopiers to photocopy studying material. I am assuming we (students and scholars) are not violating copyrights when photocopying the books.
If I take a book on loan from the library and scan it entirely for personal use, will I be braking the law?

joey wrote:If I take a book on loan from the library and scan it entirely for personal use, will I be braking the law?

Totally illegal - most books will have the relevant information and you will normally require written permission of the publisher

I always had the idea you were only allowed/supposed to photocopy no more than 10% of the given publication... DOnt ask me where I got that from. or am I wrong?

And the scaning for personal use I guess is the same as burning a DVD movie from the video store, burning a mates CD that you borrowed, Installing software that you downloaded... most people only do that for personal use

sirhc55 wrote:

joey wrote:If I take a book on loan from the library and scan it entirely for personal use, will I be braking the law?

Totally illegal - most books will have the relevant information and you will normally require written permission of the publisher

And if only a couple chapters?

read the copyright laws above the copiers. they are in all public charge copiers.

dont STEAL copy!

Oz_Beachside wrote:read the copyright laws above the copiers. they are in all public charge copiers.

dont STEAL copy!

Asking questions about copyrights - does not mean I am going to steal or I am planning to steal something.

An example:

Copyright (c) 2005 by Ivan P.L. Png and Chi-Wo Cheng.
All rights reserved. This publication is protected by Copyright and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproductions, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. For information regarding permission(s), write: Rights and Permissions Department.

Study Guide Ivan Png and Chi-Wo J. Cheng. Managerial Economics, Asia Pacific Edition Page: ii
ISBN: 981-244-968-X

Now, we need to determine what constitutes to "prohibited reproduction". Does it mean the book from page 1 through to the last page? More than 10% of the book?

A whole department is dedicated to the Rights & Permissions.

Hmmm

If the terms "prohibited reproduction" mean: even few pages from the book, then, it appears, we cannot photocopy even few pages from the book. Yet, this is a presribed textbook ifor a University course and is available on loan to students, who can conviniently use the photocopiers found in the library to photocopy parts of the book.

If the copyright says no copying by photocopier, then that's what it means.

If the book is available for loan, then that does not imply that you can photocopy it, even if your university has condoned this for however long.

If i was a professional writer, i'd be pissed if students were copying my work. If it was just a few pages for quotes etc, i wouldn't have a problem with that, but the whole book is just wrong. There are usually used UNI textbook bookstores near universities anyway, so cheap(er) textbooks are never too far away.

That said, it's completely unenforceable.

Just like owning an mp3 device in this country, which if you actually use it to play music other than anything bought from the iTunes or Destra-based stores, is completely illegal.

The 10% rule only applies to educational purposes. As such, if you're an ordinary Joe Bloggs, you can't photocopy any of it legally.

Nnnnsic wrote:Just like owning an mp3 device in this country, which if you actually use it to play music other than anything bought from the iTunes or Destra-based stores, is completely illegal.

Not true, this has been amended a while ago, to be more in line with other countries' laws in that regard.

<a href="http://www.ag.gov.au/www/agd/rwpattach.nsf/VAP/(CFD7369FCAE9B8F32F341DBE097801FF)~4123Copyright+fact+sheets+-+private+copying+music+amended.pdf/$file/4123Copyright+fact+sheets+-+private+copying+music+amended.pdf">Here</a> is a fact sheet from the AG's site.

Cheers
Steffen.

Killakoala wrote:If the copyright says no copying by photocopier, then that's what it means.

If the book is available for loan, then that does not imply that you can photocopy it, even if your university has condoned this for however long.

If i was a professional writer, i'd be pissed if students were copying my work. If it was just a few pages for quotes etc, i wouldn't have a problem with that, but the whole book is just wrong. There are usually used UNI textbook bookstores near universities anyway, so cheap(er) textbooks are never too far away.

Interesting! I can assure you undergraduates, postgraduates as well as teaching staff photocopy certain parts of the books every day in Australian Universities.

There is another side to this story.

A book is written by 2-3 authors on a particular subject. The authors are known academics working in Australian Universities. The book is published by an Australian Publisher. Pearson Education Australia for example. This book is the prescribed textbook for some University courses. The book does not provide the best text available on the subject. However, it contains questions, footnotes and material on which the courses' assignments and final examination are based. In effect, academics are forcing students to buy the book they or their colleagues wrote.
This is not the end of the story. Every 2 years a new edition of the book is released. 9/10 times the new edition will contain additional questions, or the same questions in different order, corrected typos etc. Usually, errata for most books are made available to the public on books' websites. The University course coordinators will advise students to buy the new edition. Because it contains new questions and certain additions to the book on which course assignments will be based. Again, the writers force students to buy the new copies of their book. Used books are no longer in demand. The old editions can be used for your reference but it will be difficult to sell them because, as I mentioned above, often these books are not the best text available on the subject.