<p>I must have missed the official announcement from the U.S. Supreme Court last March in the Wiley Publishers vs. Supap Kirtsaeng case. Didn't see the result on CC. The court upheld Kirtsaeng's right to import and re-sell international versions of U.S. textbooks in the U.S.</p>
<p>Imagine my surprise when I nevertheless saw this statement on the university bookstore website at Lake Jr.'s college last week about comparing their own stock to int'l editions; "These editions are not legal for resale." In other words, the bookstore's message was buyer beware, don't buy from those guys, but from us instead.</p>
<p>Somehow I think that young Mr. Kirtsaeng's victory over copyright restrictions is a hollow one because with so much money at stake (Kirtsaeng reportedly made over $1 million reselling books that his parents shipped over from his native Thailand), the publishers will concoct new methods to protect their cash cow textbook market. I foresee mid-semester upgrades and new editions issued even more frequently by the publishers to stay ahead of the discount re-sellers. And of course, some professors may expand the "access code required" syllabus of required books. Gee, I wonder whom would encourage them to do that?</p>
<p>I find it humorous how these publishers are all for capitalism when it is in their favor, but want to limit our choices so we have to buy these expensive books printed from one source. So am I subsidizing the rest of the world and an I being ripped off by these publishers who figure they can mark the book up more in the US. And yes, I know intl editions are usually on lower grade paper, soft cover etc, but I will gladly buy whatever is cheaper.</p>
<p>My daughter has purchased several international editions for a fraction of the cost of the domestic versions for essentially the same content. She has gotten pretty creative when she is now purchasing her own books.</p>
<p>I have a Compilers textbook China print and the paper is beyond lousy. Nearly translucent. For some strange reason the binding is extremely well done.</p>
<p>Back in the 80’s the university post office routinely opened ‘suspicious’ packages from abroad and confiscated such books…</p>
<p>I’ve used international editions (India/Pakistan version, I believe) for Calc III, differential equations, and advanced Calc I so far and I certainly intend to keep doing so for future math classes! Less than $150 for all three and I managed to make a $65 profit selling the Calc III book. It’s amazing how much money you can save by just putting in a little bit of effort</p>
<p>My son just purchased another international edition textbook – it cost $35 on eBay with free shipping, was shipped from Malaysia and arrived in about a week. The US version costs $150 new and around $115 used. The only difference is a paperback cover rather than a hardcover.</p>
<p>The key to finding these books is to realize that they have different ISBN numbers. The first step is to search for the book by name and edition at Amazon.uk to get the alternate ISBN and to get a sense of how much the book should cost.</p>
<p>It has never been illegal in the United States to ** buy ** or to ** possess ** overseas editions of textbooks. Despite dire warnings posted at bookstores, students buying overseas editions have never faced any legal challenge.</p>
<p>For decades US publishers have claimed the right to prohibit the ** selling ** of overseas editions in the US. The Supreme Court ruling is that the copyright law does not give publishers that right. Prior to that ruling, sellers of overseas editions were vulnerable to being sued by the publishers, but now they are on safer legal ground.</p>
<p>Don’t expect to see overseas editions on the shelves at college bookstores. US publishers will refuse to do business with any bookstore that sells overseas editions. Individuals such as Supap Kirtsaeng however do not care if the publishers refuse to do business with them directly. With a little effort it is possible to buy overseas editions on the internet marked up from their overseas prices, but at much less cost than the official US edition.</p>
<p>Fifty, I think you’re right about what tactic the U.S. publishers will take to limit sales of Int’l Editions stateside; they’ll just strong arm college bookstores. They can’t do that to Amazon, however, because of Amazon’s clout in the book business.</p>
<p>Do you anticipate that Congress will step in, at the bequest of the publishers, to restrict resale of Int’l Editions? That’s what some observers believe the court hinted at in its ruling.</p>
<p>Full disclosure: last week I bought two Int’l Edition texts for Lake Jr. from U.S.-based re-sellers. In the first case the book was identical except for the cover. In the second case it was the same book in look and content, except it was a paperback rather than hardbound.</p>
<p>The way I see it now, the only rationale that will keep me from purchasing such textbooks in the future is when the professor requires the supplemental stuff, like online and CD examples and formulas etc., which are only available with an access code. Access codes are rarely available on Int’l Editions.</p>
<p>Hmmm…buying international is something new that I never heard of before. </p>
<p>My son uses an iPad for his classes, and said he was actually able to download two books he needed for class for free. It seems too good to be true, but that’s what he’s telling me. He’s all about the saving of the dollars since he is buying college books with his own money this year.</p>
<p>Asked Lake Jr. if he would try the Amazon Kindle edition for any texts or other books required for college. He said he prefers a hardcopy and wasn’t interested in an e-copy. I can’t complain because for years I had no interest in downloading books until I actually tried it. Now in the 10 months since I purchased an Android Tablet I’ve downloaded about a book a month and at least three of them for free.</p>
<p>I think one of the reasons that e-books haven’t caught on with more college kids is that in many cases the e-editions costs as much as the hardcopies, and strangely enough some e-edition textbooks do not come with the [online] access codes that some professors require.</p>
<p>Hmmm…the ebooks that are available to my son have all been priced lower than the textbook. He is a whiz at his iPad and loves a notebook app he has that keeps him super organized. He’s shown me some of the things you can do with it and it’s pretty amazing.</p>
<p>Note that Amazon itself does not sell overseas editions. Any overseas editions sold through its website come from its Marketplace affiliates. Publishers could complain to Amazon about facilitating these sales and threaten to cutoff Amazon’s access to books. As you say Amazon is large enough that publishers have little influence with it. Recall that the publishers are upset about the $9.99 price Amazon charges for most Kindle books, but they have little power to do anything about it. Apple tried to strike a deal with the publishers to let the publishers set the prices of e-books, but the Department of Justice put the kibosh on that.</p>
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<p>Congress could do that, but I doubt it will. The widespread belief that textbooks cost too much counterbalances the publishing industry’s lobbying. Given that Congress cannot seem to deal with more pressing matters, I don’t think it will pass legislation on this issue anytime soon.</p>
<p>I keep hearing that the main content of international editions is the same, but the problem sets might be different, or might be numbered differently. We’ve always been reluctant to go for the international editions for this reason, although we’ve done it for books that didn’t have problems (non math and science books). Can anyone weigh in on whether the problems at the end of the chapters are usually identical in international editions.</p>
<p>Beth’s Mom, I’ve asked Lake Jr. if he’s noticed any significant difference between the university bookstore’s edition and the International Edition math textbook that I ordered for him. None so far. As for the Chemistry textbook that we just ordered yesterday, the seller swears that the U.S. version and the International Edition are EXACTLY THE SAME, including the number of pages, quality of the paper, and the supplemental CD. The seller has a no hassle return/refund policy. For us this is definitely the way to go. This is a nearly $200 U.S. textbook that we picked up for 65 bucks.</p>
<p>Beth’s Mom, my son takes mostly math, cs, and physics classes and none of the international editions he’s had were different than the official US editions. While it is possible that they may do so some day in the future, it’s easier for publishers to browbeat the public and their wholesalers than to make multiple versions of the same edition and then keep track of those changes over multiple editions. Even when publishers create custom editions that leave out unwanted material from their main version, they do not even bother to renumber the pages to avoid page gaps, which would be a far, far simpler task.</p>
<p>This rearrangement is commonly used in producing a new edition to kill the used book market. However, professors who have taught a class for some years often can provide a student on a budget the syllabus matched to the previous edition. That can be another way to save significantly on textbook costs.</p>