[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by bill_mchale

Steve, with respect, the ability to resell a book you have purchased is not an "abberation" of the current system; rather it is a fundamental example of fair use.

I've never considered the used book market to be the same as the "fair use" system... one allows a product to be resold by third parties, there is profit involved, while the other is basically a "free pass-along" system... but I know what you mean.

Originally Posted by bill_mchale

Further, with respect to your claims that it will not be an option in the future, I think the real question is whether it will be a legal option in the future. It is a simple fact that no DRM scheme is unbreakable (since the user has by definition access to both the clear text and the key). The ultimate question is whether or not students can sell each other unique copies of electronic text books or do they go underground and buy pirated copies?

I think the real question is: Given how easy it will be to pass on old e-texts, and how easy it is for publishers to generate new e-texts, what will keep the publishers from simply creating a "new" text every year, thereby invalidating the last one? I suspect that is the real danger, planned yearly obsolescence, that will rob the student of the worth of reselling.

Originally Posted by bill_mchale

All in all, it should not be that difficult to set up a DRM scheme that allowed works to be transferred to others in a fashion that would allow lending, would allow selling and would not ultimately violate the privacy of the users involved.

The part about reselling is the only part I personally have doubts about... like it or not, the ability to resell electronic files may simply not be in the cards in the future. I reiterate that e-books have more in common with broadcast media than with physical products, and in the same way that you are not allowed to record and resell a TV show to a third party, someday e-books may carry the same restriction. (TV shows tied to a physical media, like a DVD, can be resold of course, but recordings and copies are illegal to resell. Tying an e-book to a physical media would seem ludicrous... but without the physical media to tie it to, reselling options may eventually be deemed illegal. Maybe a proof-of-ownership "dongle," or a copy-disabled flash drive holding the e-book, would be required...)

This is assuming the parties involved don't get off their collective a$$e$ and work out a new media definition for e-books that allows them to figure out a unique and workable method of sales, resales and fair use. If they don't, they will eventually pick the best approximation that will satisfy their needs, and I suspect broadcast media definitions would ultimately be their choice.