TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Princeton University Goes Digital - The Wrong Way

Princeton University Goes Digital - The Wrong Way

Monty Solomon (monty@roscom.com)
Sun, 7 Aug 2005 11:06:31 -0400

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=4658

We admire Princeton not only for its beautiful campus and its myriad
of creative minds, but also for its courage to embrace new
technologies. Starting in the fall semester, the school will offer
digital textbooks to its students in partnership with Missouri-based
MBS Textbook Exchange Inc and various textbook publishers. The student
only needs to pick up a barcoded textbook card (see attached
screenshot), activate it at the cash register for usually 33 percent
less than the new-book price, and go online for a one-time download of
the textbook in PDF format.

Alas, the e-books are encoded in DRM which pretty much spoils the
potential success of this pilot project:

* Textbook is locked to the computer where you downloaded it from;
* Copying and burning to CD is prohibited;
* Printing is limited to small passages;
* Unless otherwise stated, textbook activation expires after
5 months (*gasp*);
* Activated textbooks are not returnable;
* Buyback is not possible.

If this hasn't scared you off already, click here to read the rest in
the press release.
http://www.digitaltextbooks.net/cgi-dts/pressrelease.pdf

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