Open Textbooks
Discussion
DRM a major barrier to e-textbook adoption
Ryan Paul:
"A study published this month by a coalition of student public interest research groups (PIRGs) has identified key problems with e-textbooks, and it calls for schools and publishers to adopt open content licenses, such as those offered by Creative Commons.
The report explains that the high cost of textbooks represents a significant financial burden for many students. Although digital textbooks have the potential to mitigate this problem, a survey conducted by the student PIRGs found that e-textbook services offered by mainstream publishing companies fail to provide a compelling alternative to conventional print books.
According to the study, a majority of electronic textbooks are encumbered with DRM that limits printing to 10 pages per session and imposes a 180-day expiration period. Despite the restrictions, the electronic textbooks don't cost significantly less than physical textbooks. In fact, the study found that the total cost is roughly the same in cases where students sell textbooks back to the school bookstore at the end of a semester.
Individual students spend between $700 and $1,000 annually on textbooks, the study says. Textbook prices continue to escalate and have already increased by over 300 percent in the last 20 years. Traditional market forces aren't bringing the prices down because students are a captive audience; professors pick books but don't buy them, and students have no choice of titles for classes. To reverse this trend, the student PIRGs advocate adoption of open textbooks that can be distributed free on the Internet under open content licenses." (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080828-study-students-need-open-source-e-textbooks.html)
Source: http://www.maketextbooksaffordable.org/course_correction.pdf
The Student Public Interest Research Groups, at http://www.studentpirgs.org/index.html
Examples
See our entry on Open Content
An open textbook initiative by Economics Professor David Levine at http://levine.sscnet.ucla.edu/general/intellectual/open.htm
The Open Textbook Initiative, at http://wiki.bssd.org/index.php/Open_Content_Textbooks