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<p>Try again, Touareg! … you’re focusing on the attempt of making the older books obsolete. The main argument of Ed Lazowska was that “One reason textbooks are so expensive is publishers release new editions every three or four years.”</p>
<p>Are books expensive because they recycle them … very often? Is it more expensive to pay an author to write an entirely new new book or edit a few pages of examples? It is more expensive to cut and paste from older version or having entirely new graphics produced? </p>
<p>College books are expensive because the industry can get away with it through its systemic collusion with the academic world. Again, the same “suffering” industry sells identical books (perhaps with fewer colors and a softer cover) from a fraction of the cost to its overseas customers. </p>
<p>The best way to render the second-hand versions obsolete would be to sell the new books at a LOWER price point. Would you buy a used book if a new one was available at a discounted price.</p>