Scholarly Communication Services

SCS Shorts: "I found my textbook online, so can my students use it?"

SCS Shorts

“I found my textbook online, so can my students use it?”

Did you ever have a professor ask you this question?  They found the full PDF version of a textbook through a Google search.  In the age of textbook affordability, making materials not so costly for students, and giving a nice answer, it’s very appealing to reply, “of course!” 

However, there’s things called copyright and infringement.  But, don’t fear!  We have a way to determine if a professor can use it (and sometimes they can), and we can tactfully tell them if using it is not a good idea.

I’ve found multiple examples of textbooks online.  When this happens, I check the verso of the textbook for some important information like copyright, Open Access label, and a Creative Commons license!

What do we see?  Do we have any indication of Open Access or a Creative Commons license?  If not, it’s highly likely this (fictitious) math book was pirated!

Now, we have another example:

This book has an Open Access padlock on the cover and in the verso is a Creative Commons license!  Open Access means something is available without a paywall or subscription, but keep in mind its CC license gives its terms of use without asking for permission.  Let’s recall what users can do with this work thanks to its license (here’s a cheat sheet).

I’d say if a professor wanted to use the marketing management book, they can IF they can follow the terms of the CC license* (answer given below, take a guess!), and I’d advise them of this.

Suggested (Tactful) Answer:  If a scanned book is not Open Access or does not have a Creative Commons license, you have to break this objective news to the professor.  It’s OK to say it’s likely they found a pirated book that was scanned and put online without the author (or publisher’s) permission.  They are empowered to make the choice to use the book, but doing this is likely to be copyright infringement.  Also, you can say the book may be taken down at any time. 

We can stop there, but for us, I’d like to add 3 underlying thoughts to the answer: 

(1) We recommend ethical uses of information sources, and modeling this to students is good instructional practice;

(2) The professors/ instructors are empowered to choose their materials, but need to be aware of infringement; and

(3) the library does not enforce copyright on campus, but we can inform others about it.

Image Source:  Pasquier, M., & Villeneuve, J. (2018).  Marketing management and communications in the public sector (2nd Ed.) [Image].  Taylor & Francis. http://doi.org/10.4324/9781315622309 

* CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 = It can be reused if (BY) attribution is provided, it’s (NC) not used for commercial/ for-profit purposes, and if it’s (ND) not changed up!

4.0 = The license version.