Faculty Selling Desk Copies—The Textbook Industry, the Law and the Ethics

Abstract

It is a guilty secret that many college professors sell the complimentary desk copies that they receive from textbook publishers for cash. This article attempts to shed light on the undercover practice by looking at the resale of complimentary textbooks by faculty from four perspectives. Part One provides an overview of the college textbook industry, the business reasons that motivate publishers to provide complimentary desk copies to faculty, and the economic consequences of the entry of the textbooks into the used book market. Part Two examines the legal characteristics of complimentary desk copies in terms of their ownership and any contractual duties that may arise from their receipt. Part Three looks at legislative efforts to curb the practice, and Part Four reviews university policies addressing the issue. In Part Five, the ethical implications of faculty selling desk copies are examined, with a special focus on this practice in a business school. The Conclusion considers the future of the sale of complimentary copies in light of the move to e-books and other initiatives by authors and textbook publishers to circumvent the practice.The post-secondary bookselling industry is a complex one comprised of authors, publishers, brick and mortar bookstores, online sellers, universities, book buyers and students. Each of these stakeholders is involved with the buying and selling of textbooks, both new and used, to the ultimate purchaser, the student. Some 8,000 publishers provide 262,000 different titles for sale in college bookstores across the United States each year (Schroeder 2006) and total sales for the bookselling industry were estimated in 2003 at