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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?"
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.
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.
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If this works, they won't care if you sell it used, because the web code is no longer valid, so the book is useless, unless you buy a new code for $15.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.
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.