Forgive me for sating the obvious, but isn't the whole point to increase profits through a licensing or subscription model as opposed to students owning the books?

Really, I think the publisher's main goal is to prevent the resale of second-hand books — not to sell the same book to the same student repeatedly. I would have hoped the publisher could somehow prevent resale without needing to make all IA e-textbooks self-destruct after a year.

What's in it for them?

@Anonymous: Were you replying to my original post, or the last sentence of my comment, or to some other text?

To the question at large/the original post: Why haven't they done X? Because they gain nothing from it. (This should not be taken as an endorsement of that behavior, though.)

The problem with long-term access is the same as the problem with a used textbook market, from the publisher's point of view: The accounts/passwords will be passed around as long as the access is available and they won't make money from it. A bigger question is: How much money did college administrators make from kickbacks for allowing this sort of thing to happen at the expense of the students, or, were they so incompetent that they didn't even think to enrich themselves in this way and just let the money stay with the publishers? Hard to say ...

I don't understand the question. If the student wants perpetual access, why can't they opt out and purchase the book instead?

@Allure: Students can opt out. I think maybe only ~5% of students do so. They're busy with other things. ❧ For a developmental psychology course, I used an old print copy of the textbook. Meanwhile, I decided not to opt out of IA, because the overworked adjunct instructor also assigned online quizzes from the textbook publisher. If I opted out, I would have lost up to 10% of my grade. Because I'd like to get into graduate school later, I felt that opting out might be unwise.

I hadn't heard of "inclusive access" before. It's a hell of a euphemism!

As @Allure implies, you need to think of "inclusive access" as a one-year rental to get through the course. Many times one can buy the actual book, it will just cost more. Now, I have a good half-dozen books on my shelf from 40 years ago that I still use at least monthly. But knowing just which ones back then (before this nonsense) would have been fairly difficult.

@JonCuster: A used copy of the actual book often costs less. (Source.) The easy way to do what you want is: A.) Buy used print books. B.) A few months after a course ends, decide whether or not you're still using the textbook regularly. C.) If you're not still using the textbook regularly: Sell it, give it away, or drop it in a textbook donation drop box near you.

@unforgettableidSupportsMonica - well, except for the online components of some of these "deals". I'm well aware of used textbooks. But 40 years ago the price difference between new and used was much closer than it is now. $100 would buy a full semester of textbooks, $1000 might buy a couple of technical texts now.

They don't really "self destroy", you can find plenty of pirated copies online. The real problem is universities openly scamming students by requiring ownership of the book in order to pass: academia.stackexchange.com/questions/176434/…

When I was most recently in school, 2018-2021, our bookstore used the term "rent."

@JonathanReez: One problem with piracy is that the author, illustrator, proofreader, photo person, and others don't get paid. Also, companies occasionally track down pirates and go after them, in order to make them pay damages or a fine. Requiring ownership of the textbook in order to pass is bothersome, but not illegal; I think the term "scam" is probably not accurate.

Of course its a scam! Colleges shouldn't care how you've gained the knowledge, only that you have the knowledge in your head.

@JonathanReez: College can be expensive. Tuition is paid by students and/or taxpayers. Requiring textbook ownership lets publishers write questions. Colleges can lower their costs by replacing full-time professors with poorly-paid adjuncts. These adjuncts may be so overworked that they might not have time to write the questions. So, the work is offloaded to the publishers instead. The students pay the publishers for access to the questions. These questions are efficiently written once centrally, by the publisher, instead of locally. Is this a scam? No. Is adjunctification unfortunate? Perhaps.

I think maybe only ~5% of students do so. So maybe they don't view perpetual access as a big deal. If I opted out, I would have lost up to 10% of my grade. Seems highly improbable. Did you ask the professor how you can take the quizzes while opting out?

A used copy of the actual book often costs less. Then opt out and buy the used copy of the book. (If enough students do this then the used copy is not likely to cost less, but w/e.) I don't see how getting an extra option to access the material is not desirable. If you don't like the extra option, opt out and keep doing whatever you were doing.

@unforgettableidSupportsMonica: But, buying a second hand book (or borrowing one from a friend who took the class a year earlier) is not Piracy. The market for books includes the idea that the license to read the book is derived from the possession of of the book. In fact, a company called Borland licensed their software using the "just like a book" license: osnews.com/story/22342/…

@Allure: I didn't ask. The syllabus makes it clear enough. The quizzes are on the Macmillan LaunchPad website, which requires an access code. The syllabus is clear that you must get access to LaunchPad. You can either pay for IA, or pay for an access code, or pay for a print book with an access code. See this Atlantic article.

@unforgettableidSupportsMonica From that document: Final note, please connect with myself or your TA as early as possible if you have any concerns or difficulties so that we may be able to address these in a timely manner and we can help you succeed. If you don't want IA and/or don't want to purchase the textbook, best talk to them as soon as possible. Better late than never.

You might be interested: academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18190/…

@Allure: The course finished about a year ago. I paid the IA fee long ago, and did all the LaunchPad quizzes. Too late for refunds now. :) In retrospect, maybe the instructor could have removed the quizzes from my grade upon request, so that they wouldn't count. I dunno. You're right that I could have asked.

@Allure: I appreciate the link! I posted an answer.