With intellectual property rights distorting markets, good people put violence-prone publishers off their feed by exploiting inherent weaknesses in the evil system.
A massive textbook publisher, John Wiley & Sons (no relation), makes amazing bank in USA as a textbook publisher. The system is like this: for a school to be qualified to facilitate student loans, the school must be accredited. To be able to facilitate student loans is to be able to trap foolish teenagers and their parents' aspirations for their children into paying too much for an "education" that gets more risible every year. To be accredited, you must have approved books. Wiley & Sons specializes in workong the system so their books are approved. With this subtle advantage, Wiley & Sons can overcharge harmfully for textbooks, given the de facto monopoly. Over paying for both an education and the textbooks leave students saddled for 20 - 30 years paying off the loans, which, by the magic of usury, grow in spite of payments being made. Overpriced text books are no secret, and "why" is no secret.
Now, at the same time Wiley & Sons are overcharging in USA given our broken system, Wiley & Sons sells the same books in Thailand, at far less money. One Thai student at a USA college notices this and has since earned $1.2 million arbitraging the unconscionable price in USA vs the the more free market price for the same book by the same publisher in Thailand. Such arbitraging is called "grey market." Please note in both instances both books are John Wiley & Sons. This is not a case of piracy.
We saw the same thing in medicine. Since Intellectual Property Rights keeps medicine prices unreasonably and unnecessarily high in USA, the same thing could be sold overseas quite profitably at a much lower cost. To keep this from happening, USA drug makers sold their drugs overseas quite profitably at a much lower cost. In this way, there was no point for anyone else to set up a factory overseas, since the goods were available dirt cheap overseas. Individuals, even states, began buying these real drugs overseas at the low prices, engagin in "grey market" drugs.
At first the drug companies tried to say such drugs were dangerous forgeries, and they were proven wrong. Then thry tried to say they were beyond shelf life, again wrong. Finally they got congress to say to include the drugs in medicare, so those who were buying overseas cheaply could now get them "free" (full price USA overcharge price paid by taxpayers, instead of low cost real thing paid by elders who would buy from Canada or Mexico.)
I wonder if Wiley will get Congress to make textbooks "free?"
Wiley & Sons is seeking to stop the Thai lad from reselling books he bought in Thailand. The very bad news is the US Supreme Court will hear the case. This is a very bad sign.
The Supreme Court, from Marbury v Madison, up to the most recent ObamaCare vote has always done the bidding of the politicians and the powers that be. There no stability or assurance any legal principles will ever be upheld by the court. You can read about this yourself in the book The TRansformation of American Law, 1789 - 1860, written by Morton Horwitz, a widely acclaimed historian of law on the Faculty of Harvard. if nothing else you should read the same book most lawyers read about the reality of USA law, so you are not naive about teh country we live in.
The Supreme Court ruling Wiley & Sons is looking to overturn is a 1908 decision regarding how our economy works. Expect the US Supreme Court to do the wrong thing, as they did in another case a few years back, on another fundamental economic topic.
This is all apart of the process in figuring out who has to pay for the damage done during the boom. the people who caused the damage so far will pay nothing. This case is about the damage done to students by Wiley & Sons never costing Wiley & Sons.
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
A massive textbook publisher, John Wiley & Sons (no relation), makes amazing bank in USA as a textbook publisher. The system is like this: for a school to be qualified to facilitate student loans, the school must be accredited. To be able to facilitate student loans is to be able to trap foolish teenagers and their parents' aspirations for their children into paying too much for an "education" that gets more risible every year. To be accredited, you must have approved books. Wiley & Sons specializes in workong the system so their books are approved. With this subtle advantage, Wiley & Sons can overcharge harmfully for textbooks, given the de facto monopoly. Over paying for both an education and the textbooks leave students saddled for 20 - 30 years paying off the loans, which, by the magic of usury, grow in spite of payments being made. Overpriced text books are no secret, and "why" is no secret.
Now, at the same time Wiley & Sons are overcharging in USA given our broken system, Wiley & Sons sells the same books in Thailand, at far less money. One Thai student at a USA college notices this and has since earned $1.2 million arbitraging the unconscionable price in USA vs the the more free market price for the same book by the same publisher in Thailand. Such arbitraging is called "grey market." Please note in both instances both books are John Wiley & Sons. This is not a case of piracy.
We saw the same thing in medicine. Since Intellectual Property Rights keeps medicine prices unreasonably and unnecessarily high in USA, the same thing could be sold overseas quite profitably at a much lower cost. To keep this from happening, USA drug makers sold their drugs overseas quite profitably at a much lower cost. In this way, there was no point for anyone else to set up a factory overseas, since the goods were available dirt cheap overseas. Individuals, even states, began buying these real drugs overseas at the low prices, engagin in "grey market" drugs.
At first the drug companies tried to say such drugs were dangerous forgeries, and they were proven wrong. Then thry tried to say they were beyond shelf life, again wrong. Finally they got congress to say to include the drugs in medicare, so those who were buying overseas cheaply could now get them "free" (full price USA overcharge price paid by taxpayers, instead of low cost real thing paid by elders who would buy from Canada or Mexico.)
I wonder if Wiley will get Congress to make textbooks "free?"
Wiley & Sons is seeking to stop the Thai lad from reselling books he bought in Thailand. The very bad news is the US Supreme Court will hear the case. This is a very bad sign.
At issue in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons is the first-sale doctrine in copyright law, which allows you to buy and then sell things like electronics, books, artwork and furniture, as well as CDs and DVDs, without getting permission from the copyright holder of those products.
A Supreme Court case could limit the resale of goods made overseas but sold in America.
Under the doctrine, which the Supreme Court has recognized since 1908, you can resell your stuff without worry because the copyright holder only had control over the first sale.
The Supreme Court, from Marbury v Madison, up to the most recent ObamaCare vote has always done the bidding of the politicians and the powers that be. There no stability or assurance any legal principles will ever be upheld by the court. You can read about this yourself in the book The TRansformation of American Law, 1789 - 1860, written by Morton Horwitz, a widely acclaimed historian of law on the Faculty of Harvard. if nothing else you should read the same book most lawyers read about the reality of USA law, so you are not naive about teh country we live in.
The Supreme Court ruling Wiley & Sons is looking to overturn is a 1908 decision regarding how our economy works. Expect the US Supreme Court to do the wrong thing, as they did in another case a few years back, on another fundamental economic topic.
This is all apart of the process in figuring out who has to pay for the damage done during the boom. the people who caused the damage so far will pay nothing. This case is about the damage done to students by Wiley & Sons never costing Wiley & Sons.
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
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