New digital scanning technology has also made copying books much easier and cheaper.

John Coyle, professor emeritus in business administration, author of Transportation and co-author of The Management of Business Logistics, explained the impact of piracy on textbook authors.

"I think the piracy affects the sales of the book, which affects the company, which in turn affects royalties," he said.

Coyle added that the volume of textbook sales can play an important role in the publishing industry.

"Volume helps to stabilize prices, and if a lower volume is being sold, it may destabilize the market," he said.

The business of selling illegally copied textbooks is often perpetrated with the knowledge of foreign distributors.

This was demonstrated by a February 2001 raid near Seoul, South Korea, on a warehouse owned by Han Shin book distributors that netted 600,000 counterfeit books, valued at more than $14.5 million.

The Association of American Publishers estimates that it lost $500 million last year in foreign markets because of piracy. The group estimates its domestic markets for college textbooks to be about $3.39 billion.

"I had no idea this piracy was going on; it's obviously a problem though," Mark Heberling (freshman- engineering) said.

Kelsey Hudock (freshman-crime, law and justice) expressed similar sentiments concerning the impact of piracy on the textbook business.

"Cheating U.S. businesses out of their profits is ridiculous," she said.

Thomas Fankhauser, Penn State Bookstore general manager, said selling illegal copies of textbooks could be very profitable to the counterfeiters because they do not have overhead costs.

"The only question is, are these counterfeit books getting back to the U.S.?" he said.

Publishing companies have taken measures to counter piracy, such as sending lobbyists to countries, including China and India, to influence legislators to adhere more closely to the guidelines of intellectual property rights.

The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights being instituted for members of the World Trade Organization is intended to ensure that intellectual property rights are respected in international trade.

Another possible response of publishing companies would be to lower textbook prices to make illegal copying of the books less profitable. This could lead to the problem of foreign distributors selling the cheaper textbooks back to students in the United States through the Internet.

"If it wasn't illegal to buy them, I would definitely consider buying them," Heberling said.

This possibility is a major concern for publishing companies and bookstores because of recent changes instituted in the international editions of textbooks. Fankhauser said international textbooks in the past were significantly different from the American versions but are now essentially the same.

"The same book you buy off the shelf now is the same book sold overseas," he said.