<p>International Editions of text books can be a lot cheaper. Anyone have problems with them? Anyone have a professor that objected?</p>
<p>Are they legally published or are they illegally copied/reprinted?
If the books are published without permission of the authors then buyers may have legal problem.</p>
<p>They are published for use in other countries. I bought one for one of my kids in high school: no difference. </p>
<p>They are less expensive. You will need to double check with someone with the US version to make sure it is the same. Who is to say you did not vacation in Canada and buy it there?</p>
<p>They are being sold on through a lot of search websites within the US. I read once that there are lawsuit by the publishers against some people/companies that import these books and sell them in the US but I don’t think it is illegal for people to buy them.</p>
<p>Usually they are soft cover and the quality of the paper used is much poorer. Some of them are the same in content but also many of them have slight differences from the US version like some chapters or pages do not match or in different order or most importantly the problem set and questions many time are not the same. When that happens, your kids might have to borrow friends’ and make copies of some pages that contain the problems. Also, you cannot sell them back as easily or get as much as the US version, but since you paid a lot less to begin with, that should not really matter that much.</p>
<p>I have seen books reprinted in Asia more than 30 years ago. The paper and the print quality were very bad. There was nothing on the books saying they were reprinted. The original books were the same (including publisher names) but the quality were 10 times better, especially the the pages with pictures.</p>
<p>I bought several International versions of accounting text books over the last 2-3 years. They were often less than 1/4 the price of the US version and were excellent quality. No problems with paper at all. The biggest difference was that they were soft cover rather than hard cover. This was actually a benefit to me as accounting books tend to be huge and the soft cover made them much lighter. </p>
<p>I have heard that some books may have different versions, but all mine were identical down to page numbers and questions (other than the paper back).</p>
<p>None of the teachers I had cared at all if they even noticed (even the one who actually had a part in writing text books didn’t mind)</p>
<p>The Supreme Court ruled this March that it’s legal–that is not a violation of copyright–to buy and re-sell international editions of textbooks in the US.</p>
<p>[Supreme</a> Court issues major copyright ruling on foreign sales - Los Angeles Times](<a href=“http://articles.latimes.com/2013/mar/19/nation/la-na-nn-supreme-court-copyright-law-20130319]Supreme”>Supreme Court issues major copyright ruling on foreign sales)</p>
<p>DS always checks with the professor before purchasing one, but so far all the ones that he has purchased have been identical (expect for the cover). I just ordered one from Malaysia and the paper quality was fine. All pictures were in color. </p>
<p>I recently ordered a psych textbook for a very cheap price without reading the very fine print. It appears that I ordered the Loose-leaf edition. Now I am concerned that it is not strictly legal, however I am not going to pay for an extra book.</p>
<p>Lots of colleges use loose leaf. The loose leaf makes it so the kids cannot sell them back. At my son’s college, nearly all the texts are loose leaf.</p>
<p>Thanks MD Mom. I feel better. It was 1/4 the price of the original book, so I am glad to know I probably didn’t buy something that a person photocopied.</p>
<p>When I was in college, loose leaf “textbooks” were sometimes prototypes for the book that the instructor is writing for eventual publication.</p>
<p>International editions were something different altogether. The publishers offer a cheaper soft cover edition at a lower price for sale in lower income countries. Basically, it is a form of price discrimination (remember economics class?). Some preferred the international editions, since being soft cover meant that they were lighter and easier to carry around.</p>
<p>The loose leaf books are used a couple different ways. Publishers encourage faculty members to customize books such as taking chapters out or putting chapters from two books together. The loose leaf works great for this.</p>