iBooks: Shouldn't They Be Cheaper?

[LPH]

Electronic books are becoming more common and Apple's release of iBooks 2 and iBooks Author may help students with the cost of these books - but - are they always cheaper? Below is a snapshot of the costs of some of the chemistry books. Worse, I was downloading and reading different chemistry books and two were just copies of wikipedia entries (those are not shown in this snapshot). Now that is just wrong.

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[Robert Heiny]

Are these copies of Wikipedia entries morally wrong or technically illegal under Wikipedia's use agreement?

 

[LPH]

Are these copies of Wikipedia entries morally wrong or technically illegal under Wikipedia's use agreement?

Certain derivatives of work may have moral rights and the original author may seek redress. However, you probably meant moral in a different sense - and the creative common license allows commercial use so many would not question inclusion. Personally, i prefer original work but most chemistry texts simply follow Linus Pauling 's General Chemistry textbook; Very little has deviated from his sequencing.

 

[Robert Heiny]

And here, all this time, I thought teachers were creative scientists as they claim through their unions for higher salaries.

It makes sense that chem textbooks follow Pauling's General Chem textbook. He was a noted chemist, so they copied the "expert."

Still, following the pattern established by another person raises the issue of taking such license without at least not acknowledging that source whether of inspiration or of content. Do you find such acknowledgments in chem texts you've reviewed or used? And how do chem teachers tell, as in footnotes and oral sidebars, their students of the source for the pattern of their reading and lessons?