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The Social DRM Evolution for eBooks

June 28th, 2011
Recently, J K Rowling launched the Pottermore online reading experience that will sell Digital Rights Management (DRM)-free eBooks of the series for the first time. Although devices such as Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iPad lock downloads to their respective platforms to prevent illegal sharing and copying, J K Rowling will be the first author of many to take this open and unprecedented approach. eBooks may soon be available to read on any device, changing the way publishers and the eBook industry conducts their business.

When it comes to textbooks, it is safe to assume that publishers who charge $200+ for their textbooks would not want their student purchasers to have the ability to share their digital textbooks (eTextbooks). With DRM, we can imagine these billion-dollar textbook publishers have only a few major options to protect their texts:

1. Restrict access. To control the use of the eTextbook, publishers could employ a licensing server that locks the use to a specific PC or Mac computer. However, in a student environment, when studying or homework can be done on an iPad, laptop, library computer or even an iPhone- this may limit the usage on college campuses for students.

2. Password Protect. Although passwords can be issued through programs like SharePoint, there are just as many if not more software packages, like PDF Unlocker, which allow users to break into locked the documents. However, if they have the money and the resources to create a non-standard DRM system, they may be successful.

3. Lock digital rights. When offering eTextbooks publishers could secure the digital rights to USB drives or other medias and will therefore charge the same amount or more than their current printed textbooks justified by the cost of the large storage space.

As opposed to the alternatives above, the Pottermore online reading experience is watermarking each eBook at the time of purchase with the identity of the person who purchased the eBook. “While strict DRM ensures that you are the rights holder before you can access the content, digital watermarking (sometimes known as social DRM) simply associates the file to the purchaser. This means that e-Books can be used across any platform, but if they are uploaded to file-sharing websites, the copyright holder should be able to tell which purchaser was responsible (although any file-sharer worth their salt would know how to remove such a watermark),” said Wired.co.uk. They say this is so authorities can track down the “sharer” of the ebook, but it prevents the purchaser from sharing the eBook with someone who did not pay for it by effectively shaming him or her for his or her illegal behavior (although, people often lend out printed books to friends, and they are not often thought of as book pirates.) This watermark strategy challenges the purchaser removes the anonymity of illegal sharing, and pressures him or her to “do the right thing.”

This evolution of eBook and eTextbook can also be compared to consumer purchasing in the music industry. Although there are several free music-sharing, platforms, there are now over 75 million accounts on iTunes linked to credit cards. Obviously people, somewhere, are choosing to purchase their music as opposed to stealing it digitally. Our conclusion is that if the purchaser can justify the 99 cents it costs to buy a song, they will also justify a reasonable price for an eBook or eTextbook and choose to purchase it instead of steal it.

The Center of Math is looking to discover new and innovative ways to release our eTextbooks in a fully functional, fully interactive and DRM-free way. Therefore, we believe if we charge an affordable and reasonable price for our eTextbooks and grant students free-use of the download (as if they purchased the hard-copy text at the bookstore) they will justify this purchase and choose not to share infringe on the copyright.

But just a thought… if these eTextbooks were to be openly shared with the world and math was made available to anyone and everyone, would that be so bad? We don’t think so.

Question for the Math World: Do you think that eBooks should be DRM-free?

Sources:
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2081247/rowling-unveils-pottermore-drm-free-harry-potter-ebooks
http://techcrunch.com/2009/01/06/itunes-sells-6-billion-songs-and-other-fun-stats-from-the-philnote/
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-06/23/harry-potter-e-books-drm

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Posted in Education Reform, Education Technology, News, Textbook Industry, Textbooks

Tags: DRM eBooks eTextbooks harry potter readers

Upcoming Research Lecture: Dr. Pavel Etingof to speak on Friday, June 11, 2010

May 28th, 2010

Please join us on Friday, June 11, 2010 as Dr. Pavel Etingof of MIT will be giving a lecture about D-modules on Poisson varieties and Poisson traces. We will be serving coffee, tea, and cookies starting at 3:30pm and the lecture will begin at 4:00pm.  The lecture will be held in our studio classroom at 929 Massachusetts Avenue Suite #102 in Cambridge. The abstract is listed below and we look forward to seeing you!

Abstract: Let V be an affine symplectic algebraic variety over C, and G a finite group of automorphisms of V (for example, V is a symplectic vector space, and G is a subgroup of Sp(V)). Let A be the algebra of regular functions on V/G, and E be the space of linear functionals on A which are invariant under Hamiltonian vector fields on V/G (so called Poisson traces). It turns out that E is finite dimensional.  I will explain how to prove and generalize this statement, using the theory of D-modules, and will also describe some applications to noncommutative algebra. This is joint work with Travis Schedler.

The Worldwide Center of Mathematics, www.centerofmath.org , is located midway between Harvard and Central Squares, at 929 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, in Suite #102. Travel to the Center by public transportation is easy via the #1 bus, or by taking the subway (the T) to Central Square, and walking for 10 minutes. Suite #102 is located on floor 01.

All attendees will need to sign a release form, as the lecture will be recorded for distribution on the Web.

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Tags: Cambridge Etingof Lecture recording lecture studio MIT Pavel Pavel Etingof Research lecture research talks speaker

Amazon, Barnes & Noble prepping iPad e-readers – MacWorld

March 22nd, 2010

Very interesting…Amazon and B & N are preparing apps to run on the iPad to view their books.  Can iPad user buy books through the Amazon/BN stores?  That would be cool, sine closed loop systems are not beneficial to the customer and ultimately to the respective companies.

From the article:

“With the launch of the iPad looming ever closer, more and more developers are coming forward with plans for the device. The latest in line are book retailers Amazon and Barnes & Noble, both of which are hard at work on their respective e-book reading apps for the iPad, according to The New York Times.

Neither of those companies were among the ones that got physical pre-production iPads to test their applications on and won’t be aiming to make their applications available on launch day. Both apps will feature a completely redesigned interface to take advantage of the larger screen and likely some funky page-turn animations, because that’s what we’ve come to expect from an e-reader.

Given that Amazon has had an iPhone version of its Kindle app for a while and even recently released a beta version of its Mac client, it seems only logical that the software would head to the iPad. What’s more interesting, however, is whether or not the iPad app will allow customers to buy content from the Kindle Store.”

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Tags: amazon kindle apple ipad bn nook

PRESS RELEASE: Northeastern University selects Worldwide Differential Calculus for Fall 2010

March 9th, 2010

Cambridge, MA- March 8, 2010- Northeastern University in Boston Massachusetts, has selected Worldwide Differential Calculus and Worldwide Integral Calculus with infinite series, for the 2010/2011 semester for their first 1st-year Calculus sequence for Science and Engineering. The school was previously using James Stewart’s Calculus series, so this marks a shift in textbook-purchasing decisions as departments are choosing to move from hard-cover expensive textbooks in favor of less-expensive/free versions, available in a multitude of formats.

Professor Robert Case commented “[this] work is conversational, more rigorous than the usual text, and has multiple resources”  Professor Alex Martsinkovsky also commented “the potential of the proposed model is tremendous”, “In my opinion, it is critical to offer materials optimized for mobile platforms” and “The students who commute in a crowded space would appreciate the possibility to read the text in the palm of a hand.”

The textbook is available for purchase in a bound, full-color, printed version, with an accompanying DVD containing the video lectures; the price for this printed version, with videos, is less than half of the common price for a current Calculus textbook. Students may also purchase, on DVD’s, a study guide, a solution manual, the PDF textbook and video lectures, or the PDF textbook with the videos embedded into the PDF. Faculty and/or departments may license the source files to produce their own customized versions of Worldwide Differential Calculus, which may then be distributed freely to students, or at a profit to the departments or schools.

Future e-textbooks:

Worldwide Multivariable Calculus, the third e-textbook in the Calculus series, will follow Worldwide Differential Calculus and Worldwide Integral Calculus with infinite series.

This will be followed by a series of undergraduate e-textbooks on linear algebra, differential equations, etc., as well as test-preparation e-books, aimed at prospective undergraduate, graduate, and professional school students.

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Tags: e-textbooks Northeastern University Worldwide Differential Calculus

The Case for Free Textbooks – Reprint

March 5th, 2010

So, we published a piece about our thoughts about the free textbook movement and this is an extension of our thoughts.

“Students having access to free textbooks is essential for fostering real change in the textbook industry, for it forces major publishers to reevaluate their business models.  Will free textbooks mean a drop in quality? Absolutely not!  Take for example the transformation in the music industry when illegal downloading became commonplace, this phenomenon (albeit illegal) forced music companies to reevaluate their business models and treat their customers with more respect and actually listen to their their demands.  Now customers don’t have to purchase entire albums, unless they choose to AND the quality of the album warrants.  So, this would actually be a case for the quality of music going up, rather than down based on the “free” model.  Is the quality of textbooks suddenly going to dive because companies such as our are offering free textbooks? Absolutely not, and one could argue that the quality will go up.  Publishers will have to evaluate the exorbitant prices they charge for the few changes in new editions of non-free textbooks.  Moving toward more free textbooks in the marketplace will force publishers to consider what changes are of “actual” worth to the students and faculty.  This would mean that if a publisher is putting out a new edition, it better be worth it or the free textbook alternative will squash the push for new editions.

Another reason companies/publishers can provide free textbooks like ours: they/we can give away their base product and charge for all their other ancillary products, study guides, teaching videos, or printed copies.

To correlate this example back to music, take the fact that some bands allow recording of live concerts such as The Grateful Dead and Dave Matthews.  Do concert goers stop purchasing live albums because they could get a copy from their friends free?  Absolutely not, those two bands have some of the top live album sales.  Do you think people stopped going to the shows because they could get a recently recorded show on the internet? Absolutely not, both bands are top touring bands, selling out across the country, selling tons of merchandise (ancillary products), just like providing free textbooks will do for the textbook industry.

The Worldwide Center of Mathematics offers licensing for departments to alter the content, upgrade, and edit as they choose.  This is the perfect scenario for professors to be able to control the content they are teaching their students. Instructors can reorganize the content, and edit, down to the sentence, to improve the experience for both students and teachers.  Departments can even license the content and sell it for a profit.

Lastly, free textbooks will also force publishers to publish only content relevant to the subject matter, instead of stuffing the pages with unnecessary content to justify a $200 price-tag, much like demand for “significant” and “useful” change to new editions.”

Please email me your thoughts es (at) centerofmath.org.

Also, please support the folks at the Student PIRG’s on their affordability campaign.

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Tags: free textbooks music industry

Help make textbooks affordable – The Student PIRG’s

March 5th, 2010

So the folks over at Student PIRG’s are making huge headway in the campaign to lower textbook prices.  Their web site is a great resource for getting involved and especially for joining the campaign.

A litte more about the campaign.

“What can we do about it?

The solution isn’t simple. We can’t require publishers to lower their prices or force professors to choose less expensive books, since we do not want to infringe on the first amendment or lower the quality of education. We can only solve the problem by fundamentally changing the way that the textbooks market works.

Here is where students come in. We don’t have much economic power against the publishers, but we do have the power to challenge their practices by running a grassroots campaign!

Textbook publishers should have to price their products fairly to gain student customers, and students should have their choice of a range of competing products designed to fit different learning styles and budgetary needs. Students should decide whether to keep, or when to sell their books, and purchase only the supplemental items they need. Higher education is essential to our future, and textbooks should not make it even harder to afford.”

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Of course our shameless plug is for our free textbooks, Worldwide Differential Calculus is free to download on the our site and inexpensive printed copies are available for purchase.

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Tags: affordability campaign free textbooks PIRG's

Upcoming Talk: Residual properties of 3-manifold groups

March 2nd, 2010

Announcing an upcoming talk by Thomas Koberda from Harvard University on Friday, March 12, 2010 at 4pm.  Please join us for coffee, tea, cookies at 3:30pm.  Our office is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 929 Mass Ave, Suite 102.

Abstract: Let M be a compact 3-manifold and G its fundamental group. We are interested in understanding the algebraic structure of G. Some aspects of its algebraic structure are the different types of quotients G might admit. We will discuss families of proper quotients of G such that each element of G survives in one of the quotients. In particular, we will be considering pgroup quotients and torsion-free nilpotent quotients of G. Residual properties of 3-manifold groups are of interest because they are key in answering certain questions about the geometry of 3-manifolds.

The Worldwide Center of Mathematics, www.centerofmath.org , is located midway between Harvard and Central Squares, at 929 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, in Suite #102. Travel to the Center by public transportation is easy via the #1 bus, or by taking the subway (the T) to Central Square, and walking for 10 minutes. Suite #102 is located on floor 01, which is distinct from floor 1.

All attendees will need to sign a release form, as the lecture will be recorded for distribution on the Web.

Hope to see you there!

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Tags: koberda research talks

Is the iPad a Kindle Killer? – tidbits.com

February 23rd, 2010

As we’ve always said here at WWCoM, we’re platform agnostic, that is, we don’t favor one type of device to view our free textbooks.  But we’re very excited to see the iPad, how many days until it’s released?

From tidbits.com

Media companies leak like sieves, so it was known for a long time before the iPad announcement that Apple was having conversations with book, newspaper, and magazine publishers about what those firms would want in an ideal device and in ideal software. We saw the first fruits of those discussions at the iPad launch, with the New York Times demonstrating a hastily revised demo app, and with Apple’s bundled iBooks app.

Apple didn’t discuss magazine and newspaper subscriptions, but the New York Times demo showed that Apple was clearly looking to the existing app approach coupled with in-application or one-time fees to suffice for that model.

For books, however, there’s a new app: iBooks. The program combines a bookstore and a bookshelf, enabling you to purchase books and download them for reading on the device. (The iBookstore was not yet enabled on the iPads available at the 27 January 2010 media event, so I couldn’t test it.)

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Tags: free textbooks iPad Kindle DX

Professor writes textbook in 11 days?

February 23rd, 2010

Well, not exactly, and how could it be any good if he wrote it that fast anyway!  As most of your know we publish our books here at Worldwide Center of Mathematics under a Creative Commons license.  This blog post is from their web site and explains how a professor remixed a textbook and published it in 11 days.

From CreativeCommons.org

Chuck Severance, clinical professor at the University of Michigan’s School of Information, recently published a new textbook in 11 days because he was able to remix an existing textbook. The book, Python for Informatics: Exploring Information, is currently being used in his winter semester Networked Computing course. The textbook is based on the openly licensed book Think Python: How to Think like a Computer Scientist by Allen B. Downey. Students are able to take advantage of the University Library’s Espresso Book Machine to print on-demand copies for approximately $10. Python for Informatics is available under a CC BY-SA license.

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Tags: free textbooks re-mixable textbooks

Online books let college students earn credit—and cash: eSchoolNews.com

February 23rd, 2010

Very cool program by one of our competitors, we support any movement to make textbooks cheaper or ultimately free.  Free textbooks is a common vision.

From eSchoolNews.com

Nineteen business majors are trying to sell the idea of free online textbooks to their professors in an internship program that pushes open-content technology designed to counter escalating book costs.

The internships, introduced this year by open textbook provider Flat World Knowledge, let sophomore and junior business students earn college credit and a little spending cash if their sales pitch convinces a professor to use web-based texts that can be reorganized and modified by chapter, sentence, or word.

Students from schools that include New York University, the University of Florida, and the College of Charleston are being tutored via webinars by Flat World Knowledge sales pros and authors of textbooks that are sold on the Flat World web site.

The company has grown in the past year as the open-content movement has gained traction in higher education, buttressed by the Creative Commons license—which doesn’t require permission from authors to change parts of a book—and the rising cost of textbooks.

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Tags: free textbooks open textbooks