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I saw something about Dynamic Books on one of my news feeds. It looks like you can completely configure the book (useful for teachers), distribute it to students computers, and they can interactively create notes and links within the books. Looks cool but is probably a Windows only thing.

They do have a deal with IBM to preload ThinkPads with their software, and they offer 2000 public-domain titles, presumably equipped with DRM. But it never caught on.

I love my laptop because it's *MY* laptop and I have a right to all the data on it. It is not at all clear that these laptops belong to the students, and in particular what their rights to the content are. The laptops are running an MS OS (see the Vital Source Technologies website). Vital Source's web site doesn't (at least easily) display their licensing terms.

The economics of books provide a certain protection of liberties. Unfortunately, laptops do not.

The Right to Read

"How does the computer know who is reading the books?"

The computer is trusted hardware, the successor to the Palladium/TCPA combo. It uses its onboard biometrics scanner to pull an eyeball id off of anyone in front of the screen. Anyone who looks at the screen too long becomes a reader.

The computer is the successor to the systems distributed by this company.

Holy cybernetic guacamole! Does anyone need anymore evidence that RMS went off the deep end years ago?

Yes, it is madness. You should tell that to the people who implemented the technology that Stallman predicted and are working with Universities to force it on students.

I need no more evidence that Stallman is mad; what's amazing is that the mad world he envisioned has come to pass.

Except when it's released region-free, or did you not bother to inform yourself before your knee jerked?

See my Other post on this already. There's no "except" here. The DVD format, region encoded or not, still needs a DVD player to view it. And 99% of the people out there buying DVD players are going down to Best Buy and picking up their encryption keys for $129.99. It's still Cosmos coming out of the back of your Macrovision-scrambled player, and you've still lost another home to the CSS-adoption war. I don't care if you sell the DVD region free with a complimentary Macrovision scrubber. The format is tainted, and pushing it advances the goals of the some very scary people.

All I'm saying is, can't we have "Cosmos released on VHS! (and, dear lord, DVD too)" as our headline?

IT (IRONY TODAY):

News Flash! Carl Sagan's Cosmos, a modern masterpiece of Science (science is a "movement" founded on "principles" such as "the free exchange of ideas") was released on the "DVD format" today. The "DVD format" is a format designed to control the ideas exchanged between students and professors, and serve as a model for the day when all information exchange can be controlled by a central authority.

Later on our program, a special feature on "Cops running red lights".

every DVD that you buy puts money in the pockets of the MPAA to argue that source code is not protected by the First Amendment.

I couldn't have put it better myself. When you push this standard, you push the adoption of the region-encoded DVD player. We're at war against the adoption of this standard right now - the MPAA has not won yet. It is important that the word is spread - buying a DVD player, bringing this standard into your home, is a step towards a world where they know what you read, when you read it and they control who reads what.

Make no mistake, DVD technology in its current form is a tool for consumer control. Don't be the product.

For god's sake, stop pushing this Orwellian shit on slashdot.

Carl Segan is rolling in his grave. "And they controlled the masses with billions and billions of encrypted keys..."