Preparing Exams from Copyrighted Books

I want to start an online exam business for CPAs. I plan to prepare exam questions, both t/f and multiple choice, from books found at amazon, barnes & noble, etc. Do I have to get permission from the copyright owners in order to create the questions and sell the exams? Students will be required to purchase the book in order to complete the exam.

I have noticed other businesses online that sell popular books and self-study exams.

Thanks,
John

I think that you have to work with the publisher of the book in question to create an "offical" study guide. I had a professor that made the offical study-guide for an Econ Book, but he worked with the publisher of the Econ Book.

Now I imagine you could probably make an unoffical study-book, I bet there is a lot of that for LSAT, SAT, SAT, MAT, etc...

To be honest though, this is not the best place to ask for help. I think we would all recommend you talk to a copyright lawyer or a publishing company.

Finally, why would you make an exam for a book? That seems to be about 90degrees from what you want. I would image you want to test understanding of accounting procedures, rules or legal issues. In that case it would probably be better to create tests and then possibly list books that provide good exposure to the exam content.

My two cents for what they're worth.

I'm not doing an "official" exam for a book, nor am I necessarily trying to teach concepts to people. I'm using a published book and creating exam questions and then registering that exam with state cpa board associations. When a cpa buys the book and passes my exam, they earn cpe credits. I charge for the exam separately from whereever the person bought the book.

Thanks for your reply.

John

Then your best bet is probably to contact the CPA Board. They should have all the rules, regs & req. for people.