Admin blames "concern of legal action" and "upkeep of a site this size" for his decision to permanently close down the BitTorrent tracker site.
College students everywhere are certain to be saddened over news that Textbook Torrents, the BitTorrent tracker site that once offered more than 6,000 college textbooks for download in the .PDF format, has been shut down for good.
"There are very few scanned textbooks in circulation, and that's what we're here to change," used to read a welcome message on the site. "Chances are you have some textbooks sitting around, so pick up a scanner and start scanning it!"
Visitors are now greeted with a much more somber message.
It reads:
Textbook Torrents is now permanently offline.
There are a number of reasons for this, but I would be lying if I claimed that the concern of legal action wasn't a major factor in the decision. However, it was by no means the only reason. Upkeep of a site this size is a lot of work, increasingly so as time progressed. What's more, two years is a long time to be running a site of this nature.
I am at heart an activist, a crusader for the underdog. When I see something that I believe is wrong, I do what I can to fix it, if only in some small way. I believe this is what Textbook Torrents has stood for, and what we have done. The amount of attention that we have garnered would not have been possible by simply running around with a sandwich board and shouting slogans. We have opened people's eyes, and gotten them talking. At its true purpose, the site has been successful beyond my wildest dreams.
What we have started here does not stop with one site. It is real, and it is now up to you to continue. Take what you have learned and experienced here and go forth. If you're able, start new sites. Find new ways to open new eyes. Keep the revolution going. It is not a revolution of one, not even of eight staff members: it is a revolution of 100,000. We have done nothing here but provide you with a venue to voice your discontent, and the ideological sentiment that we all share need not end with Textbook Torrents. Indeed, it must live on.
For my part, I have other causes that need fighting for. There are all kinds of ways to fight all kinds of battles, and it is unlikely that I will find myself running a BitTorrent tracker again. I will step back from this and hope that you will carry on in our place.
Thanks for everything, folks. Thanks for making Textbook Torrents everything that it was, and for adding your voices to mine. Now it's your turn.
Geekman
(Former) Textbook Torrents administrator
I think what "Geekman" best accomplished was illustrating how out of hand textbook prices have become and how antithetical profits are to education. Sure publishers ought to be rewarded financially for their efforts, but at what point does a profit become too much? Is it appropriate for the price of tools for a proper education to be dictated by the demands of corporate shareholders?
"Keep the revolution going" indeed.
jared@zeropaid.com
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At the college level, many instructors are either creating their own textbooks, or are openly encouraging students to use prior editions, which, truth be told, differ negligibly, one from the next. A part of the increase in the cost of college textbooks over the years has been driven by both the higher demand for a college degree over the last 30 years (and by the way, many of these college students have no business being in college) along with the financial aid doled out by the feds. So, higher demand coupled with the availability of money means no natural brake to slow the increase in the cost of college textbooks.
It's a scam any way you slice it. Like the RIAA and MPAA, greed has put textbook publishers between a rock and a hard place.
Textbook Torrents was a SLICK operation, very well managed, and the server logs have been erased by Geekman, so no worries on that front. However, a lot of people will now simply move off to other torrent sites, etc. You'll still be able to find these textbooks, you'll just have to work at it a little.