Instead, now, the publisher sell the etextbook through Amazon for $35.00. Gets its profit on that. At end of year, student cannot re-sell the book because of DRM. Next year’s student buys it from Amaozn and pays $35.00 and the year after that, the same. So, after 3 years publisher sold $105.00 in books and NOT just $50.00. Sounds pretty profitable to me. So, why is there resistance to textbook ebooks? The math works.

“In effect,” notes the Dallas Morning News in Texas, “many publishers will not sell computer-based versions of their textbooks unless the state agrees to buy the paper version as well.”

Sounds like a good reason to go with another publisher. How “educated” is thinking like that?

On the other hand, at the University level, the economics of e-books will get quite tricky. I am quite sure that college students (who are often broke) will have no problems with buying one copy of a book and sharing it throughout the class — unless the book has DRM. If the book does have DRM, we have two new problems. 1) How do student’s really “own” a professional book that they need later in their career if its tied to a single device? 2) What about used book sales? The p-book comparison is probably the new (or used) purchase price minus the resell price of the book. On the other hand, the e-book can not be resold.

Another issue is the cost of producing the text. Certainly, one solution is the public domain approach you advocate with wiki’s. However, the current model certainly has significant built-in costs, and in the case of more specialized courses/text these costs can only be spread across a small market. In terms of costs, realize that today’s modern text books are not simply about text. They must instruct today’s multi-media orientated students. They have graphics, summary callouts in the margins, embedded cases (in business texts), related videos, powerpoints, test banks, special exercises, web sites, and other support materials.