People Are Finally Fighting Back Against the College Textbook Industry's 'Scam' - Allie Conte, Vice

A lawsuit, grassroots activism, and a viral tweet by a rogue professor point to a larger pattern of debt-strapped students taking on the system. Jeremy Cucinella first suspected college kids like him were being scammed starting around 2005. He was taking a biology class at Campbell University in North Carolina, where he said he was told students couldn't make do with a used version of the required textbook. In fact, the 37-year-old recalled paying about $65 extra for something known as an "access code," or a one-time-use password that would ostensibly provide supplementary online materials. He never actually needed the code, he said, and after graduating with a "ton of student debt," Cucinella decided to get into the used textbook business himself in order to help other young people coming up through the same system. https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/pajze9/people-are-finally-fighting-back-against-the-college-textbook-industrys-scam