Supreme Court sides with student in case over textbooks

Re:Supreme Court sides with student in case over textbooks by caseysoftware on Tuesday March 19, 2013 @12:59PM (#5402077)

Don't even bother reordering the chapters.. just change a few of the homework/exercises listed in the book. A cursory check will confirm to people that they have the same version and then it bites them later on.

At my undergrad, there were some profs concerned about files of old tests.. the obvious solution is to vary the test. The more subtle solution is to use the same test but switch which numbers are where. It still trips people's "I've seen this before!" feeling but if they try to memorize it, they're sunk.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Supreme Court sides with student in case over textbooks by usea on Tuesday March 19, 2013 @01:20PM (#5402220)

If the publisher did this, not only would they lose the sale at the higher price but they'd also cause confusion and mistrust among the students and teacher. There's zero upside.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Supreme Court sides with student in case over textbooks by caseysoftware on Tuesday March 19, 2013 @02:12PM (#5402582)

Make the variance by country and 99.9% of people will never know.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Supreme Court sides with student in case over textbooks by usea on Tuesday March 19, 2013 @03:18PM (#5402966)

I people don't know, they'll buy the cheaper book. You want them to buy the more expensive version. The publisher gets nothing by "fooling" people. They want people to know, so they buy the more expensive book.

[ Parent | on HN ]