Photocopier faces six-month sentence
Bookstore manager says students have alternatives to cut costs
The Federal Court handed down a particularly harsh decision against a Concordia neighbourhood photocopier last month for copyright infringement. Riaz Lari faces a six-month suspended sentence, and must complete 400 hours community service.
Lari’s U Compute shop on Mackay St. has been repeatedly accused by Access Copyright, a Canadian copyright licensing agency, of providing photocopies of complete textbooks to students for a fraction of their retail price. Since 2000, the courts have ordered Lari to desist the practice. Yet a January 2004 raid yielded over 2,000 titles on site available for copy.
“Usually these players are simply given a fine. The amount does not make a dent in the hundreds of thousands of dollars they can make a semester. So they simply close up and reopen under a new name,” said Lina Lipscombe, head of the Concordia bookstore.
She said that Lari was probably given a harsh sentence because “he’s been the most brazen, both in terms of volume and that he’s already been warned two or three times.”
Alex Guindon, Webster reference librarian, has been researching the impact and application of copyright legislation in Quebec. Guindon acknowledges that the photocopies Lari produced were clearly illegal. However, he adds that the demand for photocopied textbooks is the result of problems with the current situation.
“Some textbooks cost $150, and publishers produce an incredible number of new editions with limited changes from one to the next,” Guindon said. With the average undergraduate course tuition at $166, textbooks in that price range can double students’ costs before they’ve even factored in printer cartridges or transportation.
“From the students’ perspective, you can see how they would be tempted [to use photocopies]. They aren’t very wealthy,” Guindon said.
“With certain subjects, there’s no reason to come out with a new edition every year,” Lipscombe said. Prices are especially high for engineering, science and commerce texts.
Over the years, Lipscombe has seen numerous copy shops profit at the expense of professors who will not receive royalties from illegally copied works .
Some illegal copy operations leave flyers advertising their services among the textbooks for sale at the bookstore. “We have to remove flyers every rush,” Lipscombe said.
She added that students are not even aware that photocopying books is illegal. “Every semester students come in asking if we provide photocopies of texts.” The copy centre in the library building also receives requests for textbook copying, a service they do not provide.
Guindon added that professors should consider expense when developing courses. Current Canadian legislation modifies copyright through “fair dealing”.
Among those exceptions is the copy of portions of a book for individual study purposes. If professors limit the number of chapters they assign from any single text, students can freely copy the material for their own use. Up-to-date information on fair dealing is available at http://www.faircopyright.ca/
Secondhand books are also an alternative for cash-strapped students. Lipscombe says that in the last few years, the bookstore has tripled the number of used books they deal in. Secondhand books now account for about 15 per cent of their total operations. The bookstore offers numerous options to students looking to sell books through their website at: http://web2.concordia.ca/Bookstore/
Concordia’s bookstore will buy used textbooks back for 50 per cent of the cover price. After a 25-per-cent mark-up, they can still offer a 25 per cent savings. Alternatively, students can plug in the book’s ISBN number and access bookstores at 20 different schools. Students can then accept the best price for their book among those offered. And the bookstore will cover shipping through this system. Finally, students can use a direct classified system for individual sales.
“It is better to sell the book a bit later in the term,” Lipscombe said. By then, course outlines have been determined and the bookstore is sure of the titles it will need. Bookstores don’t want to be stuck with titles no longer in use.
Lipscombe said textbook prices remain high because the market for textbooks is limited, especially books with Canadian editions. “The print run is usually pretty small, unlike bestsellers by Stephen King or the Harry Potter books, which have a print run in the millions.”
It may take two or three years for a book to establish its place in the market. In addition, textbooks are more frequently developed with digital content, CDs and other support materials that are regularly updated.
“But expensive as they are, $140 for a textbook, I’m not sure that’s necessary,” Lipscombe said. “We have to constantly remind publishers that there is a price point beyond which students are unwilling to pay.”