Naughty Naughty

Now that I discovered that I can post to my blog via e-mail to a specific address (that I create), I know for a fact that I'm going to able to make more entries! Just thought I'd share something interesting with you guys (something interesting to me that is, but boring to most I'm sure). Recently I discovered that it is illegal for copy shops to photocopy parts of copyrighted books and in turn sell those copies to college students in coursepacks. The reason for it being illegal is that the copy shop is making money off of the publisher's product and the publisher doesn't make anything off the transaction. This makes sense, but I was confused because as an undergraduate at Northeastern University I would buy coursepacks of short stories, literary criticism, tables/charts/maps, etc. from the school's affiliate copy shop, Gnomon's. The coursepacks were basically photocopies from published books. And I thought to myself, in retrospect, how did Northeastern University and Gnomon's get away with this when my current school cannot?

Well it seems they can't get away with it! And in a recent issue of Publisher's Weekly, it states that a whole list of publishers are suing the same Gnomon Copy that I used to buy undergraduate coursepacks at, for breach of copyright! They are not suing the whole chain of Gnomon Copys rather just the one that works in conjunction with Northeastern. So all those old coursepacks sitting up in my attic are HOT illegal goods.