SPEAK to almost any student, starting from the primary through to the tertiary level and you’ll get different reasons for their sojourn into the land of illegal photocopying.

“It is convenient”, “My mother can do it at work, so I don’t have to buy the book”, or “I can’t get it,” were some of the answers received by the Observer which sought responses from some of those who photocopy material for educational sustenance, rather than getting original copies of books.

However, the main reason is one that is not entirely surprising: “I can’t afford to buy the book,” most say.

Offenders cite a crippling economy, fuelled by rising taxes, lower real wages and salaries and highly questionable eco-political decisions as being responsible for them taking a shortcut in getting copy for their educational advancement, although the practice has been around for longer than the current world economic recession was even a thought.

“It is much cheaper for me to borrow books from my classmates who can afford to buy them new, take them to either the University, and get them photocopied there, or if the line is too long, I will take them to one of the copy shops, pay a little more to get them copied and I am ready to go,” said Sophia, who is enrolled at one of the island’s universities.

That sentiment is shared by others, who said that the cost of books had contributed to students, some of whom rely on loans from the Students Loan Bureau, finding a cheaper way to get the information that they require.

“I can easily ask my father to photocopy any amount of pages for me at his workplace,” college student Kevin told the Observer.

“My father has a copy machine for his use at the office, so there is no checking up on what he can photocopy. He just asks his secretary and everything gets done,” he said.

Yet, there are times, one student of a popular teachers’ college said, when textbooks are not available and the only way to get what you want is to find someone who has one and copy the relevant sections, or all of it for that matter.

“At the start of the school year, we get a list of books that we must get. However, after long, extensive searches, we often do not get these books at the bookshops and you will find that the only persons who have them are, in most cases, the tutors or lecturers, or some rich kid who have access to overseas markets,” said Kevin.

“In that case, we strike a deal with the tutor for us to photocopy the book, and depending on the kind of relationship you have with that person, it can be done for free or come at a small price,” he said.

While the Observer did not speak directly with primary school pupils, one mother of a student who attends a popular primary and junior high school in East Kingston, admitted that she asked a friend to photocopy Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) papers that allowed her son to sharpen up for the annual two-day examination normally held in March.

“Dem was selling the books to prepare him for the GSAT, but me couldn’t afford fe buy dem,” she said. “Me get somebody to photocopy some things and it help him, because him do well and get through fe go to Camperdown.”

But that is little comfort for some of those who are involved in the nitty gritty of putting books out, sometimes at challenging overhead costs.

“We are fully aware that our books are heavily photocopied, especially our GSAT books. A lot of parents and teachers know that it is illegal, but they do it anyway,” said Dorothy Noel, publishing manager of Carlong Publishers, a major supplier of books to the primary and secondary school markets.

“It is quite expensive for us to produce the books and don’t get the expected returns,” she said.

But some students are not sympathetic and say they will continue to photocopy material, despite the penalties that they may face.

“Unless I win the Super Lotto, or get some big money from some other source, I can’t see myself going out to buy new, crisp books,” said Jodi, a college student in rural Jamaica.