Students contend with copyright fees in packet pricing

While the beginning of the semester often brings student complaints over packet pricing, few realize they're paying for more than just copying.

Students walking out of Pequod this week complained that paying for packets added too much an already high U-Store bill for books.

"Considering the amount of money we spend at the U-Store it's absurd how much we have to spend at Pequod," said Melissa Harrison '00.

Jamie Odell '01 complained that packets were unreasonably priced. "It was expensive . . . for what I got," she said.

Several students, however, did appreciate the new recycled paper that Pequod is using and the fact that the prices have not gone up as a result. Katie Thompson '01 said she was pleased that, "They are not charging us for saving the environment."

One student joked that it would be cheaper to just borrow a friends course packet and photocopy it at Kinko's instead of buying it at Pequod.

The cost of each packet, however, includes not only the photocopying but also the labor, copyright, overhead expenses, and maintenance of the machines.

André Liu '91, one of the owners of Pequod, explained that the cost of non-copyrighted material is about five to six cents per page, while copyrighted material averages about nine cents per page. He added that copyright costs range from 25 to 40 percent of the cost of the entire packet.

Keeping costs down

Liu said that the prices of packets have remained constant since 1993. Having graduated from Princeton seven years ago, Liu said "I relate a lot with students" and therefore he said he is committed to keeping the costs of packets down.

Owner of Print-It, Bob Sweeney said, "We really don't have control over the pricing (of packets) . . . it's out of our hands."

He noted that packets have become increasingly popular among professors in the past couple of years as faculty become more cost conscious by replacing multiple books with a single packet.

"You really have to take your hats off to the professors," said Sweeney. "They are helping students out."

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The Politics Department's Administrative Assistant, Dorothy Dey, said the Department used to copy packets itself, but that Pequod has become popular because Pequod assumes the legal responsibility of clearing copyrights.

"It is probably cheaper to send it (to Pequod). If it was done in-house, you'd have to pay a secretary to copy," she added.

Pamela Long, the undergraduate secretary in the History Department, said that department office staff used to do their own copying and, "we went almost insane." Now the History Department sends its packets to Print-It.