Textbooks With EULAs

overshoot writes "We all knew it was coming, didn't we? Now Princeton University and nine others are introducing DRM'd textbooks. For a 33% discount, students get a 5-month node-locked e-book instead of all that glossy paper. Maybe Congress should just get it over with and change the law to allow EULAs on printed works?"

Comments

not Princeton, only the bookstore

[edfelten]

For the record, Princeton University has not signed on to this program. Only the bookstore is involved, and it is not affiliated with the university.

EULAs on books

[overshoot]

They allow EULAs on shrink-wrapped software and shrink-wrapped DVDs already, what makes books any different?

I can't wait. The reason is that the US Federal courts have a long body of case law on the "first sale" doctrine. A publisher tried to put the equivalent of a EULA on a book back in the 19th century and got shot down, big time.

If someone makes the argument in court that they should be able to have a EULA on a book because they manifestly can on an e-book and there's no fundamental difference, the court is either going to have to twist itself into at least two additional dimensions to avoid either shooting down EULAs on e-books or overturning more than a century of fundamental copyright law.