When I was in school most text books were very costly and we had too many subjects. I used to photocopy either chapters or the whole book and use it. That was cheaper. Have you ever done that or with novels?
I have used photocopied chapters but not the whole books when I was doing post graduate. Photocopying part or whole is illegal, this is clearly written in the copyright note inside the book. However, during our masters' program we had to read a lot of books and it was not possible to buy all course materials.
No, I never did it. All the books that I wanted to read, I fortunately could have access to the originals. However, the day I need to do it, I'll do it without any problems because I don't see any harm in it. The whole form of reading is valid, as long as it doesn't harm anyone.
No, I haven't done it either. But I use to buy it from senior class students as we are family friends. Likewise I also give my text books to those who need it for their studies. There is a two fold advantage - firstly you don't have to spend money on new books and secondly you are ensuring optimum utilization of resources. I think photocopying of textbooks are not only costly there but also lead to wastage of paper. By reusing the same text books we are minimizing the use of paper and thereby saving more trees and environment.
This may sound funny but during my school days, the photocopy machine was not invented yet and when it surfaced, the term used was Xerox. I am seeing now the younger generation with the photocopied books that they bind usually with a folder. One of their classmates would buy a book and let the others copy it. That's a good amount of savings. And although it is a violation of the copyright law, I guess it is okay especially for the poor students.
Well, not in my case, I just take some important notes but not the whole book for not all the book content should be copied. It is a waste of money to photocopy the whole book. Another way of obtaining a copy of the textbooks which we used in college is looked for the second hand book from a bargain store or from the students who have already graduated from college. At least I can save money and efforts of photocopying those books.
Technically, doing so is not legal. Universities are doing more to enforce copyright these days, so they are unlikely to let you stand there and copy whole chapters. As an author if a textbook I can't say that is bothers me too much. But students should get in the habit of following the law and professional ethics. Also at the current on campus price of photocopying, a second hand copy of the book is probably cheaper. I would suggest that a better option, if you can't find a cheap copy or use the book at the library, would be to request the sections you really need from the author via a site like ResearchGate.
In my time at school I find that I wasn't having enough money to buy all the textbooks I actually needed. What some of us would do then is get to photocopy the relevant areas in those books, we couldn't afford. That helped our academic work a lot. Under an ideal situation I'd prefer getting the actual textbooks but for the financial limitation I was good to go with the photocopied
@Alexandoy Uhmm...... Xerox is a brand of Photocopy machines and printers. The machines has always been called photocopy machines since they got invented. Xerox is an American brand name.
No, I have never photocopied the entire book but couple of pages at most. I don't think photocopying an entire book will be economical or maybe I never had to buy any book that was as costly which would be cheaper if I got it photocopied. I think because I depended mostly on libraries, second hand books or borrowed books from friends therefore I never found the need of spending money on photocopies.
I have certainly done this from time to time, but it was sections and things like that happen all the time at school. Having to do a whole book would be really burdensome though, and quite annoying.
Photocopying a whole textbook would be hectic, agreed not everyone have the means to get all the new books they need at school. In this case one would have to device a way out by making some photocopies of the original just to have the material for study. I think doing this the important thing is go to the core of the book where the actual work or knowledge is and photocopy there only
@Decentlady Many years ago I was researching the sacred texts of the Ancient Egyptians. It was hard to find in the bookstores and I couldn't be bothered to wait for the time it took to order it. I went online and downloaded the whole 'Book of Coming Forth by Day' and the 'Pyramid Texts' and 'Coffin Texts' as well as the 'Emerald Tablets of Thoth' and then printed them all out. They were much easier and more comfortable to read in the paper version and I was able to make notes on the paper for my studies.
