John Palfrey, over at the Law School, tells the Coop why it doesn't own exclusive rights to the ISBNs on the books it sells. He adds:
It's fairly certain that The Coop can kick students out of their store for many reasons, but the claim of [intellectual property] in the facts of what books I and others are assigning to our students is off the mark. I for one certainly never conveyed such a right to the Coop.
Also: Coop? If you threaten to take your books and go home, don't let the door hit you on the way out - somebody else will be perfectly happy to sell textbooks to tomorrow's Masters of the Universe, he continues.
Earlier:
Cambridge cops quell Coop confrontation.
The Harvard Crimson reports:
The Harvard Coop called police yesterday after three undergraduates collecting information for a student-run textbook-shopping Web site refused to leave the bookstore. The two Cambridge police officers who arrived allowed the students to continue copying down book identification numbers, which they did for two and a half hours before leaving on their own terms.
Walk into the Coop with a notebook and pen and you could wind up getting kicked out. Seems the Coop considers book prices "intellectual property" and takes exception to people spotted taking down prices to see if they can get a better deal elsewhere, such as on this site:
... Coop President Jerry P. Murphy '73 said that while there is no Coop policy against individual students copying down book information, "we discourage people who are taking down a lot of notes." ...
One Harvard student claims he was escorted out after being seen writing price info on six books.
Via MetaBoston.
Aaron Swartz chronicles sleeping outside the Coop recently (why? Because he could, basically):
... Around 11:30 it was getting pretty empty and the musician began packing up his stuff. I didn't last much longer, so I laid my sleeping bag out along the side of the Coop and climbed inside. There were about five or six people on the other side, all tiled in nicely with each other, all in a different sort of gear. ...
Harvard Coop
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