In article ,
P. van Rijckevorsel wrote:
"Alan Meyer" schreef
I sympathize with Indian and other third world students, many
of whom have no way to get the hard currency needed to buy
these books from legal sources. In some ways I see what
you are doing as a service to them. But American or European
buyers who pay you for these books are violating the laws of
their countries.

I wish that weren't true. I wish there were other ways to fund
the huge costs of writing and publishing these books besides
selling them for $100 US or more each. But at the current
time, there aren't.

I'm curious to hear what other people think about this.

Alan
I will agree with both sentiments expressed
PvR

Many publishers of university level textbooks in science and engineering
print special editions for sale in Third World countries. These books
are generally printed on thinner paper, have paper rather than hard covers
and sell for a small fraction of what the regular edition goes for in
developed countries. I've seen quite a few of these that grad students
bring with them when they come to study here in Canada. A book costing
e.g. $75 in Canada might have an edition selling for $5 in India. From
the point of view of the publisher, they know that they can't sell them
for the full price in poor countries, and all the editorial expense has
already been paid, so it makes sense to get the many extra sales at such
very low prices since only the low cost of printing and distributing them
in the target coutnry is involved.

There was a bit of a flap recently about people selling these books into
affluent countries via the Internet, but I don't know how it was resolved
if, indeed, it was.