Debate with only frames
Via Salon, here is a short note on an art history textbook students apparently were forced to buy: Kyle Chayka, Hyperallergenic
What is this, October!? According to a blog post published by a disgruntled parent of a student, the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) is forcing students to buy an art history book for $180 — which wouldn’t be unheard of, but the catch is that the publishers of this book didn’t get any of the image rights for the artwork it includes. To reiterate, that’s an art history survey without any pictures.
Instead of having pictures of artwork, the book, “Global Visual and Material Culture: Prehistory to 1800“ (so named for the course it goes with), instead just has placeholders with instructions to see a digital version for the actual image. It’s like a website with only broken image links. Just check out this hilarious sample page from the book:
This little bit of news seemed to parallel our election process/debate. I think we have sort of prepaid the whole $800 for the content for art history texbooks instead of the discounted $180, tax not included. Google for answers on your own are the instructions. Sort of like the first debate.
Most of the commenters say the problem had to do with getting permission to use the images. Whether this is true or not, another sneaky reason might be that the cost of printing a 2 ink (black and brown) book is much cheaper than printing high quality full color.