[mesmark]

Some books are 'reproducible' meaning you are allowed to make photocopies to hand out to students. My (MES-E) resources are all reproducible for this purpose. However, teachers/schools can't charge students in any form for the resources.

Some teachers copy pages from texts that aren't reproducible and yes that is copyright infringement, and could spell more trouble if they charge for those copied pages.

Is it allowed to copy single pages out of a textbook and then use those pages to teach English and earn money?

The salary earned for the teaching position probably doesn't play a part in this. They would earn that money regardless of the materials used.

I think the problem is greed. Everybody wants something for nothing. The more something for nothing the better. One of the top keywords for internet searches is 'free.' Many people don't want to pay, even though they should/could. I have people download and download from me when I know they can't possibly use all that they have downloaded (at least not this year.)

Maybe more people ought to concider a tip or services

Also, I probably should say that eslHQ.com is all Eric. I just hang out here.

[Eric]

Quote mesmark

Some teachers copy pages from texts that aren't reproducible and yes that is copyright infringement, and could spell more trouble if they charge for those copied pages.

Yes, this is copyright infringement. Is it stoppable, no way. I think publishers just need to figure this in to the cost of doing business, especially in countries with a low cost of living where a $15 English book is a week's worth of food.

Quote mesmark

Also, I probably should say that eslHQ.com is all Eric. I just hang out here.

But you post a lot and that's awesome!

[susan53]

[quote=Eric] I think publishers just need to figure this in to the cost of doing business, especially in countries with a low cost of living where a $15 English book is a week's worth of food.
QUOTE]

As far as cost is concerned it's a vicious circle. The more people photocopy, the higher the price the publishers have to charge to compensate. At the moment I find the prices of books here in Italy phenomenally high. I'd rather see books much, much cheaper but not photocopied. With lower costs, schools would be happier to buy class sets of a lot of books to use as supplementary materials, and individuals would be more willing/able to buy coursebooks rather than copying them. I'm not a publisher, but surely the enormous increase in sales, especially on books like Murphy, would make it worthwhile cutting costs to the point where photocopying was no longer cost-effective?

At the moment, from the teacher's point of view it's a problem of either doing something which is in fact theft (and the fact that it's rarely prosecuted doesn't change that) or giving up the freedom to use the materials which are right for the group at that moment. No coursebook is perfect for every situtation, so supplementing is essential from a didactic point of view - and it can also be what makes teaching fun.

As an author, it doesn't bother me if an individual teacher really only wants to use one activity out of my book with one class and photocopies it - and I can't say I've never done it myself. But copying the whole book, large chunks or even small ones again and again - that's my royalties down the drain. And even materials writers have to eat ...

I don't know what the solution is. A general price cut as I suggested before for major course books? Or a much higher price for all books liable to be used as supplementary materials but with photocopying rights, so that schools could buy one book and copy it legally? Every solution has loopholes and I suspect the problem will continue as long as printed materials are in use. How long that will be, I'm not sure. Is the future going to be all free downloads paid for by advertising? It wouldn't surprise me.

[Eric]

Good points, Sue. And it's especially nice to hear from an author.

Quote susan53

Is the future going to be all free downloads paid for by advertising? It wouldn't surprise me.

This would be wild... Ads showing up in textbooks. Maybe a little product placement... He's drinking a soda turns to He's drinking Pepsi.

A note about the students at my college. They seem to all have enough money to afford the Korean textbooks but when it comes to the English textbooks, that's when the photocopies start to show up. The original price is only about $10 - $12 but they complain about the price. The photocopied versions go for $4. Some have complained that $4 is too much but I'm not buying that seeing that their cellphone was probably $3-400...

At my old language school mothers would moan about the cost of a textbook ($10-$12) that we were going to be getting a whole year out of.

$10 bucks for a 6-12 months in Korea seems like very little money in my opinion. I'm not sure what the solution is because I don't think it's really a matter of money. It might be a matter of accessibility to the books.... I don't know...

[Pix]

I have to say Jeremy's comment about teachers in France made me laugh. They are a bit behind the times here!

I think books should be priced as per the country they are sold in because ultimately it is about the dissemination of ideas and knowledge. Making money is secondary. Besides it is well known that most writers can't live off their royalties alone.

Photocopying and file sharing are part of life and if we all went to hell for having transgressed I think heaven would be empty, aside from people with no photocopiers that is.

However, I think a lot of photocopying is a waste of paper. Instead of copying worksheets, use the board for a model and have students copy it down. Or better, use activities where students are speaking and listening in the classroom and leave writing for homework assignments.


Shelley

[susan53]

I've just been looking at some ELT publishers' sites. Most of them are offering extra worksheets and other goodies for use with their courses but I noticed that OUP has gone one step further. For example, for Headway and Intermediate Express they've put the tapescripts on line in Word format, explicitly so that teachers can make their own exercises with them. And for another book, I can't remember which, you can make cloze exercises from the texts.

As it's the texts (listening or reading) that I generally want to play about with, that for me solves the problem.