I was shocked to find out about this website. I have taught VCE in a low socio-economic region for many years and understand the struggle and inequality, and admire the effort to level the playing field in education. However, I also work as an author for both a major publishing company and a small not-for-profit, both of which have produced textbooks that are on your website. The not-for-profit is a subject association which exists purely to support teachers and students. It is an organisation of about 5 permanent staff and a group of volunteer committee members. I was a member of the committee for a decade and can assure you that without textbooks sales this organisation will not be able to survive. Textbook revenue is their primary source of income. We have spoken many times over the years about our reliance on this revenue and are always worried that a major publisher may produce a similar textbook which would cripple the organisation. If instead our book is made freely available it would be even more disastrous. People will literally lose their jobs, and the association would no longer be able to produce the range of resources for both teachers and students.
As an author, I also want you to consider the impact that it has on my income. I literally do not get paid any wage as an author. I only get paid based on royalties. I mainly write textbooks because I am one of the few expert teachers in my particular discipline. It is an enormous amount of work, and the payments received certainly do not justify the struggle. In fact, if it was calculated per hour it would probably equate to barely above minimum wage for what is a very demanding job. I do this as a side-hustle while working full time as a teacher at an enormous personal sacrifice. If these textbooks are leaked, and I lose that income, it won't cripple me financially but it will mean people like myself no longer accept offers to write, which will without doubt reduce the quality of these publications and therefore the reduce the educational benefit for both teachers and students.
I strongly urge you to consider these impacts. It's not like you're pirating movies from Hollywood, you're literally taking income away from hardworking Australians and potentially crippling not-for-profit organisations.
Thank you very much for getting in touch and for raising your concerns. My aim for the library has always been to have a net positive impact on education so being able to have discussions with authors directly always helps provide insight. I hope that the responses I provide in this email help to address your concerns and provide clarity. I'm not sure if you'll be satisfied with what I have to say, you can refute my arguments if you think my judgement is wrong.
The most important thing to understand is that the site I run isn't blind piracy. I have constantly taken the effort to minimise harm to authors while still providing access to students. I believe confidently that the loss of textbook sales from my site is very slim, while the potential for disadvantaged students to gain access to educational resources is very high. I know this is a strong claim to make, but my justification is simple. I intentionally distinguish students who are unable to purchase textbooks from those who are, helping to reduce loss to authors.
Last year I stopped hosting textbooks during the end of year school holidays which is the main textbook buying period. Students would have no option but to buy their textbooks before school starts, and anyone remaining would be going without. When I made the textbooks accessible again, the disadvantaged students gained access to resources they otherwise wouldn't ever have had. If these students were never going to purchase a copy, authors wouldn't have lost revenue and a kid is no longer going without.
Textbooks are primarily purchased by the parents of students, not students themselves. No young person would convince their parents not to buy their booklist so that they can wait a couple months for the textbooks to be made available again to save their parents some money. They would be intentionally sabotaging their own study over the school holidays as almost all schools in the state assign holiday homework. I didn't provide anyone with the date the textbooks would come back online, so students would have to wait in uncertainty if the resources would even be accessible when term 1 began. This isolated students who find piracy a convenience from the students who are unable to afford textbooks in the first place.
If the textbooks I hosted weren't available these students would otherwise have nothing. They could save money by purchasing a second-hand textbook but publishers don't make any money from these sales either. Not too different from piracy.
I avoid hosting any content created by independent authors and there have been several instances where I have removed resources on the request of the author where appropriate. I'm not sure which non-profit you were a member of but I assume it's a member organisation of CPTAV, like VATE, HTAV, GTAV, MAV, etc. These organisations are non-profit so the profits are distributed more fairly than at a large publisher like Cambridge where profits are distributed upwards. I didn't make exceptions for removing textbooks from these non-profits as I felt that the author remuneration was more fair, therefore reducing the consequence of a potential loss of income from textbook piracy. These organisations are non-profit so removing their textbooks and denying disadvantaged students education in the interest of profit seemed very contradictory to non-profit ideology.
Most of the traffic the site receives is for exams, not textbooks. Exam publishers only sell to schools directly so students are unable to purchase exams themselves. The textbooks hosted on the site are primarily accessed by students who are struggling. Students from a low socioeconomic background are already at a disadvantage to their peers, and denying them access to resources only perpetuates this disadvantage.
I intend on shutting down the site at the end of the year so it won't exist in 2025 to cause the chaos you believe it creates. I genuinely care for this issue which is why I've invested hundreds of dollars and hours into the project, and why I'm replying to you when the site will close regardless. I've seen the impact this site has had on students and it's been incredible. I've spoken to authors & publishers and made as much effort as I can to mitigate harm to authors to the point where I think the harm caused is benign.
Thank you very much for authoring textbooks and teaching. I have a lot of respect for you and your peers in improving education in Victoria.
I don't believe the website has created chaos yet, I'm worried about the potential once it is widespread. You have no idea how far and quickly these PDFs will spread.
I write for both Cambridge and one of the not-for-profit subject organisations and do not know why you think the author remuneration is more fair for one than the other. The royalty deals are fairly similar. Please don't try to claim that not-profits are willing to release their material for free to support disadvantage students as part of their ideology. You don't know them or their ideology, they are not volunteers or a charity, they are a small band of education professionals who have taken a pay cut to leave schools to work in these organisations. They go above and beyond to achieve so much with limited resources. I can provide some budget numbers if you're interested. The textbook revenue is literally paying the wages of the staff. Even a 10% reduction in sales would probably result in losing a staff member.
If you want to talk about inequality in education there is so much I don't know where to begin. However, I'm not sure how much experience you have working in disadvantaged schools but textbooks are really not a big issue. As I said, I spent many years teaching at one of the poorest schools in Melbourne and most students had textbooks. If a student did not have a textbook then the teachers would lend spare copies, have spare copies as part of a set, or have a few copies from the library. I know you'll say that authors get no revenue from lending a copy, but the difference is that it was at least purchased the first time, and it is being provided for students within a controlled setting. It is also not breaching copyright laws...I literally never had a student attend any of my classes without access to a textbook in one form or another. What these students didn't have were classrooms with air con, proper uniforms, facilities, reliable internet connections, a stable home life, a place to study, educated parents who took an interest in their child's education etc. If you really care, start a charity or fight for those things rather than going after the low hanging fruit and running a piracy website that is taking money away from hardworking authors and subject organisations.
I don't understand how you "distinguish students who are unable to purchase textbooks from those who are". I went on the website today and downloaded PDFs without having to declare whether I was a poor student. I have no idea why you think you can control this " The textbooks hosted on the site are primarily accessed by students who are struggling.".
As for stopping hosting during certain periods, once again, I'm not sure how much experience you have working in schools but as soon as PDFs are available they are shared. I don't see how shutting down in certain periods achieves anything. I currently work at a fairly wealthy school and I guarantee families and students would share this stuff around instantly.
I also write trial exams for a company. As you said, schools buy a license for these and then distribute them to students. Students literally don't need to buy these. I have no idea why you feel the need to supply them for free. All schools, even the poorest, have a budget for this sort of thing. Publishing companies provide bundles of exams from previous years at a heavily discounted price.
I don't believe you have any respect for me and my peers. Providing a website like this is literally the most disrespectful thing you can do to an author or educator. You are stealing my work and providing it for free.
Call it what you like but it is blatant piracy. And you might think a drop in revenue is not going to hurt authors but that's really not your decision to make and you actually have no idea what is and isn't going to hurt authors, nor should you have the power to control that. It is literally the only money that authors receive and it is a small and competitive market.
A better way you could help reduce inequality in education is to train up as an education professional, gather years of experience, and then write your own materials and provide them for free. Spend hundreds of hours writing a textbook, gathering data and images, paying fees to be able to publish this data and images, pay for printing and distribution, and then receive no money. Alternatively, perhaps you could do your job for free and donate your money rather than indirectly forcing me to give up mine.
The reality is, although you think you're doing something noble, and have somehow justified it to yourself, it is not your right to make that decision. Give away your own work for free if you wish, but ask me before giving away mine.
I have reported the website to three publishers that I work for. This is not the first time I have been in this situation. Last time the company was able to seek legal action. I sincerely hope they do this again. But I assume you're the kind of person who is hiding behind layers of safety, too gutless to provide your real identity. If not, please send me your details. I'd love to meet up for a chat to discuss the matter further.
And one more thing, if you really want to fix inequality, the biggest inequality by far for many subjects is that some teachers know the marking guide and some do not. VCAA does not publish the marking guide because they're scared of legal action. It is not available unless you are an assessor (or good friends with an assessor...). Assessors are sworn to secrecy. Schools who have teachers who are assessors have an enormous advantage. If you want to be some sort of education Robin Hood, in a way that doesn't reduce anyone's income or cripple any organisation, then get ahold of those marking guides and publish those. I guarantee that will make a difference because no doubt there are more assessors from independent schools than government sector.
I only check this inbox periodically so I wasn't able to reply very quickly, sorry.
I don't understand how you "distinguish students who are unable to purchase textbooks from those who are". I went on the website today and downloaded PDFs without having to declare whether I was a poor student. I have no idea why you think you can control this " The textbooks hosted on the site are primarily accessed by students who are struggling."
I tried to explain as clearly as possible how I distinguish the students who need textbooks from those who don't. The files are still meant to be easily accessible to those who need them. Students have already purchased their booklists when the term has begun so they won't need to use the website. This is how the site has been designed.
As for stopping hosting during certain periods, once again, I'm not sure how much experience you have working in schools but as soon as PDFs are available they are shared. I don't see how shutting down in certain periods achieves anything.
The main reason PDFs circulate between students is because it's convenient to have a digital copy of a physical book. Students will already have purchased their textbooks by the time school has begun, they will not hold off buying in hope of a PDF copy.
As you said, schools buy a license for these and then distribute them to students. Students literally don't need to buy these. I have no idea why you feel the need to supply them for free.
ATAR is inherently competitive and there is an inequality created between well funded private schools and less funded public schools. If you're a student at a private metropolitan school you'll have access to more practice exams than a student at a rural public school. We can both agree that students don't purchase these resources so I believe it's reasonable to not deny students access to these exams that they otherwise would not have had.
you actually have no idea what is and isn't going to hurt authors
My last email outlined all my rationale for reducing harm to authors while still benefiting students.
I write for both Cambridge and one of the not-for-profit subject organisations and do not know why you think the author remuneration is more fair for one than the other.
It was my understanding that Cambridge is a for profit business whereas member organisations are non-profit so that the profits can be better distributed to authors.
I don't believe the website has created chaos yet, I'm worried about the potential once it is widespread.
The site has been operational for almost two years and will be closing at the end of this year. If it were to create chaos it would have already occurred. From your perspective, things are surely improving not worsening.
Call it what you like but it is blatant piracy.
I understand it's insulting to see your work accessible for free but as I've explained it's not blatant piracy. If the library wasn't available, hundreds of students would be going without access yet the gain to publishers would be insignificant. I believe that being blinded by profit is what pushes publishes to try and deny disadvantaged students access. My explanation for why this site is unique in only providing access to students in need seems completely reasonable.
The reality is, although you think you're doing something noble, and have somehow justified it to yourself, it is not your right to make that decision.
I've done as much as I can to properly understand student's rationale for using the site and designed it in a way to maximise it's impact while minimising its harm. You've reached a conclusion that the site is entirely damaging to publishers/authors without properly refuting or addressing my previous arguments. Some schools may succeed in providing students with textbooks but that won't always be the case and the availability of the library reduces the barrier to entry for education. I still don't think I'm naive or delusional in the logic I have given for hosting the library. I don't intend to cause any harm to authors and I'm sorry for anything I may have caused.
And one more thing, if you really want to fix inequality, the biggest inequality by far for many subjects is that some teachers know the marking guide and some do not.
This is something I've never heard of so thank you for mentioning it.
We have a fundamental disagreement on the effect of the site so I don't know if it's worthwhile arguing a point that I already established all my arguments for in my first email. I don't want your email to go unrecognised so I may publish it in a blog post on the site's closure so others can consider you opinion. Unless you would be against that.
Yes I would definitely be against you publishing my email. Just like I'm against you publishing my work. That's literally the whole point. You make so many assumptions about schools and the ways students behave and my question for you is are you a teacher? Have you been a teacher? Do you work in schools? If so, surely you would realise how incorrect all of your assumptions are. And you're acting based on these incorrect assumptions. The website is live currently. Students at my school are receiving their timetables for next year literally today. There is nothing stopping them going straight to your website and downloading all their textbooks. How does that fit into your assumptions?
I can publish your emails with your name redacted to let others hear your opinion and deter anyone else from creating a successor to the site upon its closure. I think it would be in your interest to do so and I can provide you with the ability to have that reach. I will post it without bias to only show the email discussions so others can make of it what they will.
There is nothing stopping them going straight to your website and downloading all their textbooks. How does that fit into your assumptions?
The last exam is a week from now, that is when I'll make the library unavailable. Some schools may provide students with their booklists this early but I wouldn't expect the amount of students downloading PDFs for next year to be very many at the moment. It's surprising how many students just access the PDFs via links instead of downloading them directly. I know that plenty of students will lose access because they relied on the links.
Ok, if you intention is deter others from recreating the site then go for it.