Hey, curious as to what will be going on with 7sage with these changes... @"Dillon A. Wright" @"J.Y. Ping"
http://lsatblog.blogspot.ca/2015/03/lsac-bans-lsat-preptest-pdf-sales.html
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Hey, curious as to what will be going on with 7sage with these changes... @"Dillon A. Wright" @"J.Y. Ping"
http://lsatblog.blogspot.ca/2015/03/lsac-bans-lsat-preptest-pdf-sales.html
119 comments
Though I obviously don't speak for JY and Alan re: their pricing structure, I really don't see how the course would get much cheaper than it already is. Even the cheapest tier has 1200+ question explanations, and if you see the actual question displayed on your screen (which happens throughout the course in large quantities, as you cannot teach adequately without reference to questions), 7Sage is paying a licensing fee to the LSAC. Adding in the theory lessons, costs of running a website, and various other business-related expenses, and some quick back-of-the-napkin math tells me that frankly he should be charging more than he is even now, and it'd still be worth every penny. But from what I know about him, he doesn't because he wants the course to stay as accessible as possible. All the way back to our days working on PreProBono together, that's been his goal.
I don't see how LSAC not letting people sell full-length PDFs would change much in that equation. It's not like you're being charged once for the test and again for the individual questions.
Hey guys, we're talking to the LSAC about this. Our license expires on April 23rd. Whatever new deal we work out with the LSAC will begin on April 24th.
I believe their major motivation for this policy change is to deter piracy. I predict that ironically, it's going to have precisely the opposite effect.
At this point, it seems like we will not be allowed to offer PDFs anymore. I'm trying to convince LSAC to change their position (for their benefit, for yours, and for ours), but I think the odds of that happening is very low.
I sincerely thank all of you for your support. The uncertainty with LSAC has been really stressful for Alan and me because what you see here on 7Sage is basically our lives for the past few years. Your support means so much to us.
To clarify LSAC's position, they're not banning PDFs per se. They're placing encumbrances on the delivery of PDFs so severe that they amount to a ban. Indeed, some of these encumbrances are technically impossible to enact. I can talk more about the technical details (or really Alan can) but the upshot is that as users, neither of us would want to install the DRM software LSAC suggested because (1) they are intrusive, (2) buggy, and (3) they do not actually enact all the restrictions that LSAC has laid out.
Here's just one ridiculous scenario that would occur if we implemented the DRM for PDFs. LSAC require that we limit printing to one copy. Okay, sounds fine. Until you look closely at what that would entail. Let's assume that the DRM functions 100% all the time. Okay, but what happens when say you print a PT and get a paper jam, or run out of paper, or your toner was low so everything came out light grey or streaky, or you hit print but the printer wasn't plugged into your computer so you need to send the print job again, or what if you just want to print more than one copy? These are all things that in fact happen all the time. But if we implemented the DRM, you'd just be out of luck. How's that fair or even realistic? Like if I actually wanted to troll you and was thinking up ideas of how I'd do it, that would be a top contender.
On balance, we decided that you guys are tech savvy and it's trivially easy to get PTs elsewhere. And as for the future, so many of you have pointed out already that the PDFs, while a convenience, do not represent the value you get with 7Sage. That's true. The PDFs of the PTs are largely a commodity. Like any other commodity, they're the same no matter where you get them. (I do want to say that we did put a lot of effort in making our PTs cleaner than any other you could find and we even laid out the LG sections from all the older PTs to conform to the new two page spread but oh well.) The point is that the value of 7Sage lies in our Core Curriculum, our Fool Proof / Memory Method / Blind Review methodologies, our video explanations for thousands of LSAT questions, our robust Analytics, and most importantly, you, 7Sagers, our community. You guys created something really Good with this discussion forum and comments beneath each lesson. These are our core values that 7Sage offers and these are here to stay.
So, please don't worry. This PDF ban, while a pain in the butt, is not going to change much.
Before deciding to freak out because of this new policy, I wanted to share a few reasons to remain calm and positive about the change. Purely my own opinion, so feel free to criticize, correct, add or agree with me.
First of all, those of us who are enrolled in 7sage now and anytime before the licence expiration date ends have all the access to the PDFs until then, so there is not much for us to worry about; just download them all (wait, don't tell me you were going to let your subscription expire without having downloaded all the PDFs). If anything, I feel bad for the future students for the inconvinience caused by this change.
Secondly, the main reason I (and I suspect many other students) am enrolled in the 7sage course is not because of the PDF files they are offering, but for its lessons as well as the detailed explanations (in addition to a supportive community and the excellent free analytics tool).
While I do not know how 7sage's pricing model works, I suspect that 7sage's primary source of revenue was from selling PDFs (remember those $7 pdfs + explanations offers? those were basically freebees. sigh... those were the days...). Sure, 7sage will have to work on new pricing and stuff, but I am certain that it won't be the "end" of 7sage or other LSAT online courses out there. If anything, print/book-PTs might even encourage future students to more actively seek out additional resources, like 7sage. That leads me to my next point.
7sage is already so cheap and affordable compared to any other online resources (If you know a more affordable website with equal or better quality, please let me know. Sorry, 7sage). Without the price of PDFs included in the course bundles, 7sage will seem even more affordable to the future students, and more people might sign up as a result. (As a personal anecdote, when I first discovered 7sage, I was hesistant to sign up, only because I already had all the PTs. I'm glad I signed up anyhoo.)
Of course, some may make better and more valid arguments about how this might harm 7sage and other online prep services. But I have faith in 7sage, and I believe that it is the quality of the lessons/explanations and the lively forums that keeps us wanting to come back for more, not the sales of PDFs.
I do think this policy is unnecessary and, frankly, stupid. But the all-mighty LSAC has spoken. For now, let's all hope for the best.
I knew I should have voted for Mitt Romney.
I'm gone for a few days and I come back to this? What is life! LOL
I think this just means you should have a fire sale on the pdfs @jinadarcy0610262.Y.Ping & @7sagestudentservices
Psst... Only until April 21st, PrepTests with full explanations are temporarily discounted here: https://classic.7sage.com/addons/
Of course, make sure to download the PDF immediately because the PDFs will be taken down on April 21st (very soon!).
[edited for clarity]
As far back as 2011 research has shown that Netflix dramatically reduces piracy. Why? It's simple. If people have convenient and affordable access to legal content, they don't pirate. Conversely, if people don't have convenient and affordable access to legal content, they do pirate. If we want something, we'll find a way to get it.
Our analogue of Netflix is 7Sage (or LSAT Blog), offering convenient and affordable access to legal content. If LSAC takes this away from us, what do they think we're going do? "You know what it really was way too damn convenient to print out my PTs. I want inconvenience in my life."
No. Actually, even though I'm done with the LSAT, I might just pirate some PTs out of spite / to increase the number of seeds. Just kidding @7sagestudentservices, that would be un-sagely of me to do.
You'd think a company that places such a high value on logic (I'm talking about the LSAC) would understand the incredibly simple logic behind this argument (also know as reality). But likely the people who write the questions are not the people who run the company.
LSAC strikes again.
Hey everyone, the PDFs are officially off the site now. We're sorry for the inconvenience. I hope you all got the PDFs you needed!
If you already have a course, you can continue to download them until 11:59PM EST (about 19 hours from the time of this post). Downloads were supposed to stop a few hours ago - this extra availability is a grace period to help account for time zones, confusion, etc.
Thanks for the support everyone! It's too hard to make a big zip of PDFs because all the PDFs need to be individually watermarked and tracked for LSAC, sorry :(
As an alternative, we made a page where you can see the PDFs you have access to and will disappear on the 21st, so that you can download all the ones you need in one place :)
http://classic.7sage.com/download-pdfs/
It's fresh off the press, so if you find any problems with it, please let us know!
[Edit: I took down the link temporarily because of complications with our LSAT question usage, but it's back up again now and should cover all the right PDFs]
THANKS OBAMA
Kudos to all the administrators and staff for their gracious (and generous) handling of these changes. @alan-91620 @7sagestudentservices @jy-ping
@alan-91620 THIS IS WHY YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST!!!!
People. I love a good deal as much as the next guy, but It's not the PDF that costs 7Sage all that much money. The cost is the hours of effort that JY and Co. put into creating that explanation video, not to mention all the other bells and whistles that come with this platform. I think it's amazing that the sell it so cheaply at the outset. Let's not forget that this is still a business, albeit an altruistic one.
As far as I know, this is NOT affecting the video explanations. Only the ability to download PDFs (as there will be none!)
@ga4842993.Schwartz ahhhhhh... a zip file would be nice
@nicolemarie8201282.hopkins Good idea... Out of sight, out of mind. Wait, how do I not think about 7Sage when studying from 7Sage?! I'll be watching a Parallel Flaw Question Explanation like "J.Y. please don't leave me! I NEED YOU."
@nicolemarie8201282.hopkins That is exactly it. LSAC changes policy banning PDF downloads: eh, ok I'll bounce back from this. The potential for 7Sage's explanations to be affected by the change: OMG My life is over!
Or even if you could compile a zip file with all of the content to be taken down from each course and provide a download link for us..... Would be really helpful and easy for everyone!
we still have not been explicitly informed that the explanations will remain.
Will this affect the video explanations for preptests?
@530 I'm planning to wait for the 7sage price to come down (I own all the 10 Actual books plus the Cambridge PDFs 39-51). The reason I have not gotten 7sage yet is because I own all of the tests and drilling materials that come with it (wish they had a "Course only" option). My recommendation would be to buy the Cambridge 39-51 off their site since those are otherwise out of print (do this before the 23rd, should run you about $80 or $90). And then go and get good used copies of all of the 10 Actual books off of Amazon (even if they're written in in pencil, buy a big eraser). No huge rush on those since they're not affected by the new policy. Seriously, I paid $4 for a copy of the second Actual book and it had never been thumbed through before. The other one I got had pencil markings so I erased.
I have invested in several pink erasers (.99 for 3 large at Target ... ) and use them all the time (after every drill and/or PT I take in my books). Takes a little elbow grease but this will continue to be a viable option once the PDFs are offline.
It's kind of like DRMs. Every company that has implemented DRM encoded files has had a decline in sales. In my opinion it will encourage a lot of people to release all of the current PDFs, and whatever file they change the tests to will be crackable by whatever hacktivist that is up to the challenge. I just don't want to lose my J.Y. video explanations. As long as we have those, then it shouldn't affect current 7Sage subscribers who save all the PDFs. Also, I saved all of the Logic Game Bundle pack.