Ed Felton comments about Princeton bookstore’s offering of DRM-protected ebooks:
I don’t see a reason to object to the U-Store offering these e-books, as long as students are informed about the DRM limitations and can still get the dead-tree version instead. It’s hard to see the value proposition for students in the DRMed version, unless the price is very low. It appears the price will be about two-thirds of the new-book price, which is obviously a bad deal. Our students are smart enough to know which version to buy — and the faculty will be happy to advise them if they’re not sure. I don’t object to other people wasting their money developing products that consumers won’t want. People waste their money on foolish schemes every day. I wish for their sake that they would be smarter. But why should I object to this product or try to stop it? A product this weak will die on its own.
As Felton describes it, the status quo for ebooks offers little significant cost advantage over deadtree versions. So it’s pretty clear that DRM won’t sell well. However, it’s only a matter of time before prices come down and profs start self-publishing their own textbooks (if they are not already doing so). Given the POD possibilities, students will probably always have the option to buy something in POD format.
One key question is: can I read this DRM-protected textbook on my linux laptop? If not, the university is essentially imposing an OS standard on textbooks, and that is potentially harmful. Many universities are fine with doing that. But individuals should know about the existence of these standards before arriving on campus and not suddenly be surprised in the middle of sophomore year.
Another question becomes: which textbook edition is more up-to-date? In some disciplines, research and technology are changing every month; if a DRM-protected textbook lets you download a version that is a few months old (as opposed to a few years), that could be a good selling point.
One more question is the quality of the multimedia content in the ebook. Do the ebooks include multimedia package with a certain wow-factor? Do they have animation, high quality graphics, audio/tutorials? If DRM makes it easier for content owners to provide copyright-protected multimedia content, perhaps there is some value to that. (In this particular case, we are talking about PDF ebooks with DRM, nothing unusual). The “book concept” typically means retaining usage rights indefinitely, but the same expectation may not hold true for a DVD or a computer simulation. My local library, for instance, lets me check out .wma files of audio books. Because of the Windows Media DRM, the .wma self-destructs after a certain time period. Well, that sounds sucky, right? On the other hand, DRM has made publishing houses comfortable with the notion of distributing audio content. That’s a major win for patrons. Not only can I check out audio books totally online, I no longer have to worry about the hassle of returning checked out items to the library. That’s a big win for everyone.
For DRM to “work,” consumers need to see the advantages of it. Is it cheaper? More up-to-date? More interactive? I am no fan of DRM, but if universities are going to require and even to sell DRM-locked ebooks, they need to draft minimum guidelines about accessibility and fair use for ebook vendors.
I posted a couple of comments at the Copyfight blog.
With the proposed price structure (33% off the full price) this is definitely a losing proposition for students. Back when I was in university, you could purchase a new book, use it for a semester and re-sell it for about half-price. Alternatively you could buy a (recent) used-book at around half-price, use that and re-sell it for a bit less. I would be willing to pay no more than 50% for an electronic version that is going to expire at the end of the semester – probably 25-33% would be even fairer.
I can see the day when some books will _only_ be available this way and students will have no choice but to pay exorbitant prices for ephemeral goods that they will never own. (Personally I always bought new books and kept them – I’m a bookaholic…)
Sometimes you could even resell the second-hand text book you bought, meaning you got to “rent” the book essentially for free. 🙂
Now if DRMed works came at that price point (ca. 0% of the price of the real deal), I might consider using them. Might.
And that’s really not as odd as it sounds, because 0% of the retail price of the real deal is approximately the same amount I pay a library for borrowing a book (give or take a couple of cents that go to the author via levy collection agencies).
When I was at Uni I would borrow the textbook from the library and run the whole thing through the photocopier. It was usually still cheaper than buying it new. If I was doing it now I would buy (or borrow) a good digital camera and photograph each page. If that’s the alternative then the ebook price is going to have to be pretty low to compete.