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

This is awful

[b17bmbr]

I kept many of my college texts. In fact, right now, I'm looking at an almost 20 year old copy of my Gwartney and Stroup Econ book as I prepare to teach econ this semester in high school. It's not that I forgot (my BA is econ), just looking for the much better explanations and examples than the text we use.

this is also horrible for another reason. how can students refer back to previous classes? all these people that think technology can cure all. sad really. nothing beats books. and by the way, my masters is in Ed. Tech.

Or...

[imstanny]

1. Books are downloaded. 2. Digital screen shots of photos are taken. 3. Digital screen shots converted to Word document using Tablet text recognition software. 4. Free text books. Not saying that's what should happen, but I wouldn't be suprised if it did.

Re:And for a dollar more

[pegr]

Or buy from O'reilly... Their e-books are open format, no DRM, no proprietary nonsense, and even come with a cross-platform java doohickey to facilitate searching...

So how is it that they can do it without worrying about copying while no one else can? Maybe if you treat your customer with respect, they will return the favor?

I understand that they don't do textbooks. But you could do a whole lot worse for textbooks than O'reilly.

Re:Stallman was right up to this point ...

[kenthorvath]

It is a legitimate concern and one worth worrying about, but I don't see the major media conglomerates getting very far with it. The reason being that authors and publishers don't have to DRM their works in the same way that software publishers don't have to implement DRM and authentication systems in their products. Some companies invariably do such things, but for every one of these another free, open source, or other such somewhat more desirable contender tends to either pop-up or have already existed.

What surprises me most, really, is that I have never come across a repository of free textbooks available in some standard electronic form - say PDF. If there were enough such books available and written by reputable professors there would be a movement towards making them the standard texts in classrooms.

This is not as implausible as it may seem. There are many cases in which authors have released print versions of their text alongside or after having released electronic versions. In the majority of cases, the freely available electronic text bolsters sales of the print version. Also, e-texts can be revised and distributed easier. With a wiki dedicated to errata and addendums, the e-text could supplement the print version as being up to date and an indisposable reference in some cases. The author, in turn, gets free editing and peer review.

Finally, the success of other free software projects at the university level suggests to me that a free text-book program would be quite welcome. The students would certainly put quite a bit of pressure on the university and its faculty to implement it regardless.

Anyone know if something like this exists?

Re:So much for selling used books

[femtoguy]

As a professor, I am seeing a new, and very insidious development. We just went through a pitch from a major publisher for a book that we produce for a local class. We had been self-publishing, and our cost was $25 per book. They were willing to do the editing and publishing for us, and we were ready to talk about developing written materials for thei book, but all that they wanted to talk about was on-line content. When we pushed, it turns out that their new thing is to twist arms to get required web-delivered content in all of their books. So now when you buy a book, you get a code that is valid for one semester.

If this works, they won't care if you sell it used, because the web code is no longer valid, so the book is useless, unless you buy a new code for $15. They get their cut no matter what. If you fail the course, and have to re-take the class, you owe them another $15. If you give it to your younger brother, $15. They always get their cut.

Their web content often includes web-supported and web-submitted homework and quizzes so if faculty buy in, students will have no choice but to pay. Kind of sad.

Re:Five months?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's even worse than that. While the books won't 'expire' mid-semester, many publishers plan to tie the course's evaluation software to these e-books. This will effectively kill the used book market, which is a big threat to publishers right now, especially now that Amazon and Borders have jumped into the used book trade.

Here's how it works: the professor gets the new course book every year, possibly for free. With that book comes software that allows a teacher to easily post quizzes online, something similar to Blackboard. In order for a student to use this, they have to have this year's book/software combo, otherwise they can't take the test. There are other schemes floating around out there, too, like students will take tests in-class by answering questions on a projector screen using an RF/IR "clicker".

How do I know this? I work for a textbook publisher and our president informed us that this is the way the entire textbook industry is going. Our company is all in a tizzy right now about DRM as well. They simultaneously see digital books as a threat and a potential boon.

MIT opencourseware

[jurt1235]

Since you already have the basics (the course and the book), why do you not check if you can work together with MIT by integrating the book in opencourseware (I do not know if the content matches what MIT opencourseware stands for sofar, but else I think their are other places, or it is a nice startingpoint. That way you get a bigger audience, and hopefully more funding to keep up this work.

I think schools, colleges & universities should be more selfsupporting in this anyway.

Re:Learning?

[glockenspieler]

Insightful? Please...

I'm a professor, I attempt to select the best possible book for the course that I teach. I have published books but I have never required one of my books for a course (actually I have distributed electronic versions of portions of text to students to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest by requiring this).

I try to take into account the cost of texts but there are many other considerations and while I might hate requiring a $100 book, what am I to do if I decide this book is superior to an $50 book?

I am not sure what "artificial market" you refer to although I suspect you are referring to the fact that the people incurring the cost aren't those making the selection of the product. While true, this does not necessarily constitute an artificial market. Many products and services (and while I am loath to refer to education as a product but for the sake of argument) have other costs that you may be liable for once you've purchased the original product or service. Think cars and car repairs.

I dont' like the shape of market forces in the textbook industry and many professors feel the same way. Many of us take steps to mitigate these costs (I push fair use to the absolute limit in making electronic resources available to my students at no cost). We simply have so many constraints that the end result is always a compromise.

Finally, I recommend avoiding statements like "Everybody knows..." Its usually a clear sign that what ever is coming next is vastly oversimplified, self-righteous, or just plain ignorant.