Geekman, as the anonymous person refers to himself, began his heroic measures in January 2007 with the creation of his Web site Textbook Torrents. The Web site allows students to download digital versions of textbooks at no cost. The site has about 6,000 PDF, text and image files and currently has around 64,000 users.

The legality of the site has been called to question but Geekman seems to have no intentions of shutting down the book haven. One of the reasons his identity remains unknown is so that he can avoid legal clashes. His residence, which is reported to be outside the U.S., also gives him some comfort.

Surprised? Don’t be.

It was only a matter of time before textbooks would be added to the list of illegally downloaded material. Textbook Torrents might be considered a sort of black market for textbooks to publishers but for some students, it’s a prayer answered.

The prices we’re charged for books are outrageous.

It’s understandable that book companies have to make money if they want to maintain their business but they should understand that we aren’t made of money. If book companies aren’t willing to meet us halfway, they shouldn’t be surprised if we’ll go to any length to save a couple of bucks.

Some students already exchange class notes and buy and sell books online through sites like Allmsu.com and Facebook.com’s marketplace. Some students have even gone as far as to buy a book, photocopy it, and return it to the bookstore in an effort to save money. It’s sad that we have to go to such extent just to receive a quality education so if offered a cheap alternative, publishers better believe many of us will take it.

Although it helps that we can sell books back to bookstores at the end of the semester, the money we receive is nowhere near the equivalent we paid for the book. For students paying for college out of pocket, this makes for even less motivation to buy from bookstores.

MSU ranked seventh in the country, the first Michigan university on the list, among colleges that received copyright complaints from the recording industry between 2005 and 2007. On a campus that holds such a rank, it’s hard to believe the idea of downloading textbooks wouldn’t become a trend.

With tuition rates rising at every turn, books should be the least of a students’ worries. If publishers lose money from Textbook Torrents and Web sites like it, so be it. That’s the price they’ll have to pay for overcharging us.