For over two years, College students everywhere could turn to Textbook Torrent to get free PDF versions of over 6,000 textbooks. Now because of concern of legal trouble and server issues, Textbook torrent so down for good.
The homepage of Textbook Torrent currently 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
Due to the large cost of textbooks, approximatly 40% of the cost of college, Textbook Torrent was a financial haven for the millions of students who go into debt every year trying to pay for college. Now these students have no site to turn to if they want to save money while furthering their education.
Until another book torrent site goes online, college students may able to find torrents for the textbooks they need by googleing the name of your text book with +torrent at the end.
Legal Disclaimer: While downloading copyrighted material is legal, uploading it is not. PDF versions of textbooks should only be used if you have already ordered a book, and are using the PDF version while you are waiting to receive it.
Due the popularity of the Bit Torrent protocol, I will try to feature more Bit Torrent related articles in the future.
Read. Learn. Do. CaseyTech
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