"First It Was Song Downloads. Now It’s Organic Chemistry."
If my textbooks are on The Pirate Bay, I may consider downloading them to my laptop. I keep it with me nearly 24/7, and with 2 HDs large enough to carry an 18-wheeler's worth of textbooks, it will save me a lot of weight to walk around with on campus anyway.
Moreover, the time-benefits are outstanding! I can use text-to-speech to speak the textbooks' contents to me while I clean my room or play video games! For the first time in my life, I can FINALLY study and play at the same time!
For the more essential things, I can now bother to take up time-consuming cooking. I'll be able to go easy on the microwave now, and actually cook up meals worthy of a cookbook, while listening to my textbook at the same time. (I do know how to cook, and can follow precise instructions from a cookbook with the right tools, but I've had an aversion to it solely due to its time-consuming nature. I never have enough time, in the summer or otherwise.)
I doubt K-State will prohibit students from using ill-gotten E-Textbooks because not only would such a rule be quite difficult to enforce, they'll sympathize with us, our wallets, our backs, and our patience anyway.
What's next?
Hypothetical news article in 20 years
"Song Downloads, Organic Chemistry, and now a classic free Ferrari!"
Published August 1st, 2028
AFTER scanning a vintage 2003 Ferrari Enzo at a supercar show with a portable scan-camera-wristphone and making them available to anyone to replicate free, a contributor at the product-scanprint-sharing site All4Free.org composed a colorful message for “all auto manufacturers," warning them that “myself and all other motorists are tired of getting ripped off." (The contributor’s message included many ripe expletives, but hey, this is a family newsstreamer.)
All forms of manufacturing must contend with the replicant transition, but auto manufacturing has a particularly nasty problem on its hands. Car collectors and sport motorists may be the angriest group of captive customers to be found anywhere.
Consider the cost of a legitimate vintage automobile listed at All-4-Free, Ferrari's 2003 Enzo. An original Enzo can be sold to collectors for over 200,000 North Ameris ($20,000,000 old Dollars); a legitimate replication by Ferrari itself runs about NA90,000; used replications run NA30,000 and up. To many motorists, those prices are outrageous, set by profit-engorged auto manufacturers. Helping themselves to gratis pirated replicas may seem natural, especially when QSSDs (Quantum Solid State Drives) are loaded with lots of other products scanned in free.
(remainder of article truncated)
(If you watched "Star Trek," you know about the "Replicator." They are like a futuristic 3-D printer. We may have 3-D printers that will print car parts by 2028. (At least I would hope. Perhaps this is too overly optimistic, but you never know.) Then robotic house-servants assemble together the car, and have it completed and ready in the garage by tomorrow morning.)
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