Publishers sell
English-language textbooks at lower rates in developing countries. Such
“cut-rate foreign goods” are a staple on e-Bay. In late October 2012, the U.S.
Supreme Court heard arguments on a case that pits the practice against the
claims of publishers of copyright infringement. The case began when Wiley
accused a USC doctoral student of copyright infringement and won a $600,000
judgment. The student not being able to afford the judgment, Wiley successfully
urged the judge to take the student’s golf clubs and his computer after his
graduation—as if sending the student to his room without dinner even though the
vase is still broken. Clearly, the clubs and computer could not come even close
to covering the judgment. Given the lack of publicity on the particulars, I
doubt that the terms were even designed to be a deterrent. If I am correct, the
motive comes from more of a “stick it to him” mentality. Whereas a legal
analysis of the case is doubtless most typical, I want to try to uncover the
sordid nature of this mentality behind the “clubs and computer” slap-down.
The
full essay has been incorporated into On
the Arrogance of False Entitlement: A Nietzschean Critique of Business Ethics
and Management, available at Amazon.
