Covers and Copies

An interesting observation that I have made over the years is the way people cover their books. We had this thing in school whereby we had to cover all books and copies in brown paper bought from the school stationary shop. But after I passed out of my school, I noticed this habit of people. First it used to be the newspapers. Depending on the education level and the parental preference in newspaper language, either in english or in the local language. Always a double layer. The page was first folded and then used as a cover. Remember, at that time we did not have those jazzy colour specials in newspapers. Then our town and the newspaper industry began to progress and we started having the special weeklies with lot of colour on glossy paper. People were instantly hooked and the local newspapers gave way to glossy sheets.
Whatever college I went to, I saw this covering streak in the people around me. Whether normal newsprint or glossy paper, it was necessary that all books be covered. No matter what. It was the thumbrule. No matter the effort put in by the publishers to make the cover design. Nontheless the book had to be covered. It was supposed to protect the book for a long long time.

Another habit we have with respect to books is we copy them here, there, everywhere. No need to buy the book if somebody else has it. Just make a copy. It's far cheaper. Whats the harm in that? Everyone does that. Even teachers encourage it. The copyright law for us seems to be nonexistant and people feel that making a copy of a book is their birthright.
I remember one similar incident about which I had a conversation with a friend. This guy is doing his masters in the UK. One prof guy had gone to his university to see the labs and the facilities so that such course could be introduced in India. All he asked the profs there was the list of books and lecture notes/materials, this inspite of being warned by my friend that lecture notes are a big copyright issue there.
Here in our country there are no such issues. Lecture notes themselves are copied from books in most cases. And we have the liberty to distribute the notes freely..