college text books, a business that will be changed forever

[Dus10]

I am not saying they are losing ground... I am saying they are jumping on the piracy bandwagon. Just because some piracy is occuring, they are not being hurt... the music industry is posting their biggest numbers, as well as the movie industry... They keep crying about piracy, but it is not really effecting them... although it could if they do not take advantage of new technologies or listen to customer needs.

I found your example of the rail industry very interesting though. I was just researching it... in regards to the oil industry and the tobacco industry. I believe that the tobacco industry and the oil industry are polar opposites in regards to their reactions to the market. The tobacco industry (I should say the companies involved in the tobacco industry) are pursuing new markets as the big push for reducing the number of smokers expands. As the oil industry is fighting tooth and nail to keep things the way they are. Oil, being a finite resource, is going to run out without conservation and other concepts of reduced oil consumption. Instead of fighting new initiatives, they could be the leaders in them. For example, instead of fighting fuel cells and hydrogen powered vehicles, they could lead the development of the new fuel initiatives. Where the rail industry comes into play is they actually are very much like the oil industry, and they resist change. Their saving grace has been eminant domain. When the railways in the US were being built, the US government used eminant domain to get the land needed for the railways. They gave this land to the rail companies. What is amazing is that they gave them a 5 mile stretch of land beyond the rails... They have sold that land here and there for ages... That has really kept them afloat. I do believe they need to make some serious changes in order to remain a contender in the larger transit industry.

[davidshull]

responding to your tobacco ex., i know of a company that is using the tobacco plant because it has very large leaves and somehow using the photosynthesis process to develop medicines. i don't know the details but they have also figured out a way of using strands of the plant to produce a rope/cable that is stronger than steel. the company is call Chloragen, they are being incubated by Monsanto. pretty cool stuff though, giving tobacco farmers someone else to sell their crop to.
you would think with all of this information we have Dus10 that we would have something better to do with our time than post msgs. on this board...but it is what it is.

[Dus10]

Yea, hopefully I can use my ability to attain information to my benefit someday... or at least to someone's benefit. Monsanto has his hands in everything...

[Marcus]

I don't know about America, but in the UK different universities and schools tend to use different textbooks. Isn't that going to make it hard to drum up a nationwide client-base?