I never realized this, but, at my school at least, there's a lot of corruption surrounding textbooks:
1. The economics department. With one class, they require you to purchase an eBook for $30. Yes, 30 for a damn PDF. Written by the econ teachers, so they pocket all of that money. And your name is plastered on every page, so you can't sell it at the end of the semester. Now, anyone who's taken this microeconomics class will tell you, that you don't use the PDF. Ever. I never used it once. But, they keep a list of who buys it and who doesn't. If you don't buy it, you don't pass the class. Even if your grade is an A.
2. Again, the econ department with another class. All of the instructors wrote a macroecon book. I guess they decided that $30 wasn't enough, so this time, they printed it and charge $85 for it. But, they don't keep the list, but you actually use the book so you have to by it anyways. At least it can be resold. And, maybe macroecon this semester won't suck so bad, my instructor is liberal, hates Bush, and isn't afraid to say it
3. My database management instructor will admit that the textbook we use has a ton of errors. Today, he even handed out a packet, several pages long, with nothing but corrections for the book. The book is on its 10th edition. 10 editions and they can't even get it right. So why does the instructor continue to use a textbook that sucks so bad? The author is his friend. I'm sure there's some kickbacks involved there, otherwise, what reason would he have to continue to use a textbook that sucks so hard? My only piece of mind is that I bought the international edition off eBay, so the author probably isn't getting any money from me.