The textbook on the history of art came out without pictures

First-year students of the University of Design and Art in Ontario this semester will study art history using a $ 180 textbook without pictures. The reason is that the university did not have time to “clear copyright”, that is, to obtain the necessary permissions to publish illustrations. This absolutely crazy story was published on his blog by the father of one of the students.

The situation is all the more absurd because the textbook for $ 180 (+ tax = $ 203) is compulsory for the course “World visual and material culture until 1800” (course LBST 1B04 ).

It's hard to believe the story, but it's true. University management has already sent an official responseon this issue. They explained that the compiled textbook is unique, compiled from three publications with a total value of more than $ 300, adapted and supplemented specifically for this course. If the university received licenses from publishers to publish illustrations from original textbooks, the cost of the book would rise from $ 180 to $ 800. And the illustrations, they say, can be viewed electronically on the publishers website. So students should be grateful that in this semester the textbook for this course will cost them so cheaply (in the next semester you need to buy a new one).

The illustration shows a sample page from a future textbook sent by the university.


Sample tutorial page

You can see the illustrations in electronic form on the publisher's website. Within the images, the URL for each specific image will be indicated.

First-year students published a petition and began collecting signatures against this idiocy.