[susan53]

[quote=Eric] I think publishers just need to figure this in to the cost of doing business, especially in countries with a low cost of living where a $15 English book is a week's worth of food.
QUOTE]

As far as cost is concerned it's a vicious circle. The more people photocopy, the higher the price the publishers have to charge to compensate. At the moment I find the prices of books here in Italy phenomenally high. I'd rather see books much, much cheaper but not photocopied. With lower costs, schools would be happier to buy class sets of a lot of books to use as supplementary materials, and individuals would be more willing/able to buy coursebooks rather than copying them. I'm not a publisher, but surely the enormous increase in sales, especially on books like Murphy, would make it worthwhile cutting costs to the point where photocopying was no longer cost-effective?

At the moment, from the teacher's point of view it's a problem of either doing something which is in fact theft (and the fact that it's rarely prosecuted doesn't change that) or giving up the freedom to use the materials which are right for the group at that moment. No coursebook is perfect for every situtation, so supplementing is essential from a didactic point of view - and it can also be what makes teaching fun.

As an author, it doesn't bother me if an individual teacher really only wants to use one activity out of my book with one class and photocopies it - and I can't say I've never done it myself. But copying the whole book, large chunks or even small ones again and again - that's my royalties down the drain. And even materials writers have to eat ...

I don't know what the solution is. A general price cut as I suggested before for major course books? Or a much higher price for all books liable to be used as supplementary materials but with photocopying rights, so that schools could buy one book and copy it legally? Every solution has loopholes and I suspect the problem will continue as long as printed materials are in use. How long that will be, I'm not sure. Is the future going to be all free downloads paid for by advertising? It wouldn't surprise me.