Fuck Half Priced Books!

[Keffria]

I have little to say about the actual subject of this thread, so I'm going to respond as if this thread really is about books, since that's what I thought at first, too.

You'll almost always get ripped off, unless you sell them directly to another student. I don't even bother anymore, which is actually okay because the books I have to buy now are still useful later on sometimes.

Same here, for the most part. I was safely able to sell most of my first-year books, and I made about half my textbook fees back that way, but the things I have to buy now tend to be of the sort that'll continue to be useful for the rest of my academic career. I don't know where I'm going to put all of these books; I have another year of my BA to go, yet, and my shelves are full...

But gawd, textbooks are so expensive, and it's no good getting a cheaper alternate edition from a used book store, because profs will be making page references and you won't get any of them.

[War]

I am not familiar with those two terms in this context, and a 30 second google search did little to shed light on it, so I will just assume the company was to lazy/greedy to come up with a way around the problem. If Blizzard can changing CD keys, they should be able to as well.

There's nothing lazy or greedy about it, it's the way it is. You can't sell your iTunes music on to someone else can you? And most places haven't offered used PC games for years due to the piracy problem. Same reason stores won't accept returns if they've been opened.

[Rkolter]

If you're looking to blame anyone, blame the company that sold the used software - it's their business to know what the replacement cd-key terms are for the major game publishers.

[IVstudios]

You can't sell your iTunes music on to someone else can you?

No, but I can sell the original CD even if I have ripped the music and people can still use it.

But I don't really know enough about this to know why it won't work, so I'll just have to take your word that it can't be made to work.

[Foorley]

Aw.. This reminds me of when I had gotten Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne, for Christmas.
When I went to install it, the CD key turned out to be invalid.

[Kisai]

Missing the point, remember my other job deals with this.

Software licensing and Software ownership are two different things.

Most software licenses say that you can not sublicense or simultaneously use one license of a product, when the value of the game 'license' is the key and not the physical media or installation medium (I can buy the media for adobe anything for 25$ from adobe, but the key still costs hundreds to thousands of dollars.) This is especially the case with Microsoft, the creator of the "software license", in which not only software can not be resold, but you can not sell the software that came with the machine, even if you never powered it on. (You see a lot of people trying to sell vista, who have dowgraded to XP)

Because games that can be played multiplayer version check each other, it's difficult to for such software to be pirated or modified to bypass the key, since it will block you from playing multiplayer with others. This is the case with all Xbox360 games.

Have you noticed that you do not need a 'key' to play console games? In those cases, the value is in the physical media, however the same license agreement applies. You can resell console games, since pirate copies will not work on other unmodified consoles, nor can you copy the game yourself without special knowledge. Did you know that Nintendo software comes with keys for you to register? (Warranty purposes) If you acquire a new or used game from India, maylasia, singapore or hong kong/china or taiwan you are more likely to get a professionally counterfeited software?

Used DVD's have this special grey zone, where people buy or rent them, rip them to their media server, and then return or resell them. There is no 'software license' for dvd's, it's media ownership only. You are licensed only to view it in your own home, and fair use dictates you can make a backup copy. You are safe untill you try to distribute it (eg, give the disc back to the store or resell it.) However there is a lot of counterfeit software out there, particularly showing up on online sites like including trusted sites like amazon.com from third party sellers. Counterfeiters usually go after box sets however.

So going back to the original posters example. Used software has, and always has been "no return", since it can be copied/installed and then returned. It physically has to be defective, and if it is, they only exchange it for the same software. If you bought a used copy of software, you should be aware that the media itself is the only thing you are getting, not the license. (See my adobe reference.)

As a general rule, for software, if someone is selling it for less than you can buy it from the companies online store, it's a questionably licensed copy.
http://www.theesa.com/policy/antipiracy_faq.asp and http://www.bsacybersafety.com/protectin ... tduped.cfm

If you try to sell Valve software on eBay (including the steam account,) Valve will tell eBay to remove it for software licensing issues.

[[AlmightyPyro]]

The more you know!

That's why I thought It would be ok, I figured Half Priced Books would be smart enough to know that Keys don't work twice. But apparently they think this rule only applies to online only games. Why I think this? The manager told me. -_-

I went up to the store yesterday, guns a blazing, and told the clerk what had happened. Sympathetically he called his manager who I then reexplained myself to. I didn't have my receipt any more cause it was accidentally thrown away so I had to explain that to her to. I told her that since I was dumb and didn't have my receipt anymore I wasn't going to demand a new game or money or anything, but that I wanted her to know that she should stop selling games with CD keys, especially Valve games cause Steam is damn near impossible to crack. She said to me, "Well is it on online only game?" to which I replied, "Yes and no because both are pretty extensive so you couldn't call it one or the other." She then told me that they don't sell online only games because the key is registered to only that computer, which is why they can sell offline games. o.O I told her that offline games can't reuse keys either and after a good look at the box she said, "Well see here's the cd key!" and pointed at the giant numbers as if I hadn't seen them and tried to use them. I had to explain to her that that was the key I was talking about that didn't work. After a bit she finally said that I could exchange the game since it still had the Half Priced Books price tag on it. I said thanks, and once again told her to stop selling those type games. Next time I go Iim going to see if Half Life is back on the shelf.

[Jesusabdullah]

I was safely able to sell most of my first-year books, and I made about half my textbook fees back that way, but the things I have to buy now tend to be of the sort that'll continue to be useful for the rest of my academic career. I don't know where I'm going to put all of these books; I have another year of my BA to go, yet, and my shelves are full...

I didn't know to sell my books myself until it got to the point where my books were useful to keep. It's also tough to find people wanting to buy my books, because they're so audience-specific.

But gawd, textbooks are so expensive, and it's no good getting a cheaper alternate edition from a used book store, because profs will be making page references and you won't get any of them.

Sheah, tell me about it! My design book cost nearly $200!

[BrownEyedCat]

But gawd, textbooks are so expensive, and it's no good getting a cheaper alternate edition from a used book store, because profs will be making page references and you won't get any of them.

I've had some Profs who were very sympathetic about this.

"Hmm . . . I'm pretty sure there are some sections in this book that are blatantly wrong, and some of the exercises are switched all around, but eh. You can use it. If it's missing homework problems from the chapter, just borrow my copy."

And I still have my copy of that book today!

[McDuffies]

Still I bought "Coca-Cola kid" by Frank Moorhouse in old books bin. It's the book that affected my political views, ideology and outlook of the world more than anything else. I've read it from the library back in high school, but could never find it anywhere later because it was never reprinted - until I found it on the old books shelf in a local bookstore. My sister tried to find an issue on English, but it turned out that our edition was more inclusive than any she could find.