Chinese Medical Textbook Piracy-a proposal

[Guest guest]

Well why not, as Z'ev implies, have the publishers (churchhill Livingstone, Blue

Poppy, Eastland, Paradigm, etc) sell to the schools directly at a substantial

discount, say 30%, and have the schools include the cost of books as part of

tuition? That way everyone gains: The publishers make up in volume what they

lose in retail, yet they also no longer have to pay the middle man's cost, and

students don't have to worry about coming up with the money for books. I

remember that some students just didn't buy their books, but rather checked out

repeatedly from our school library. For a student our textbooks tend to be

pretty pricey. BTW, I chose the figure 30% because that's the discount that is

offered for textbooks from China by the two Chinese bookstores here in LA.

 

Whatcha think?

 

Yehuda

 

<zrosenbe wrote:

Bill,

If students show up with their textbooks even once to class, it

means that they've acquired them. If schools require prepayment for

texts as part of tuition, they'll buy them.

 

It is nice to create a healing atmosphere, but if our main

publishers and distributors go out of business, if writers editors

and translators cannot make a living, if new texts are not released,

our profession will fall like a stack of cards in a breeze.

 

 

On Dec 17, 2006, at 12:24 PM, Bill Schoenbart wrote:

 

> Well said. Threatening students, calling the FBI, pressuring

> schools to

> expel students, forcing them to haul around 30 pounds of books--

> none of

> these will help create an atmosphere to learn healing. A heartfelt

> statement

> prepared by publishers and authors should be posted in all the

> schools. Many

> young students don't even know that this sort of thing is wrong. We're

> educators; let's educate, not threaten.

>

> On the other hand, if there is evidence that certain people or

> schools are

> creating these DVDs, they should be warned of the legal consequences.

>

> I'm speaking from the perspective of an author and the owner of

> thousands of

> dollars worth of books. I completely agree with the anger and

> frustration of

> the publishers; I just disagree with the best way to deal with it.

>

> - Bill Schoenbart

> ............................................

> Bill Schoenbart, L.Ac.

> P.O. Box 8099

> Santa Cruz, CA 95061

>

> office phone: 831-335-3165

> email: plantmed

> ............................................

>

> >>>>>>Chinese Medical Textbook Piracy is not occurring in a vacuum.

> It is

> happening within a context of piracy of music, movies, and other types

> of audio and visual media.

>

> There will be no stopping of this piracy no matter how many people get

> busted. The recording and movie industries have battled against this

> for years and they are much better funded than CM publisher will

> ever be.

>

> To wag accusing fingers and talk of moral turpitude is to ignore what

> is happening around us. I treasure each person that I meet that has

> an integrity that I can trust.

>

> All those working parents just did not/do not have time to teach their

> children about work, integrity etc. Now those children have grown up

> and go to schools of higher education.

>

> Demanding student to bring their books to class is likely to only

> anger them thoroughly.

>

> Asking the FBI to investigate will probably bring no more that

> rudimentary actions unless you give them names and addresses. They

> have a pretty extensive " to do list " these days.

>

> Explaining to students how much effort and time goes into creating

> books will have a greater effect than any punitive measures.

>

> Figuring out value added services for book purchasers will be a

> possible way out of this dilemna. For example, buy this book and you

> can search through it online with your personal passcode or you can

> join a discussion list with others who are studying the book.

>

> In the long run, I think that exposure to books through computer

> screens will lead to greater sales of the truly useful and unique

> books. Nothing can ruin one's concentration more effectively than

> reading extended material on a computer screen. I will only look at a

> book on a computer screen long enough to determine if it is worth

> buying.

>

> I want to thank all the writers and publishers for the many fine book

> published (I will ignore the many not so fine ones). And I am happy to

> have many of them in the clinic library so I can refer to them often.

>

> I also want to say that I am very sorry that you are going through a

> difficult period where you will not receive all the rewards for your

> hard work that are due. I hope that once the anger is over that

> creative solutions will be discovered so we can all move forward.

>

> I also want to thank Jason for asking difficult questions and making

> some valuable points about the numbers being used.

>

> Thank you,

>

> Duncan Echelson

> Austin, TX

> >>>>>>>>>>>>

>

>