Quote:
Originally Posted by jbcohen
I don't see DRM as really relevant to the current topic, its simple and easy to strip from any book at all. I recall a classroom in Virginia that becuase of budget cuts simply could not afford printed copies of the books that were needed and simply could not buy the several licenses for the books in electronic form so what they did is to purchase one copy strip the DRM from the books with software and load it on to the Kobos the class had been given by several parents. Once they read the book(s) they went into the school's electronic library. The Kobos could care less about the DRM and finacially this was the only way the class was going to be able to read the books.
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This is completely unacceptable. I don't know what rules they have in Virginia, but I know that where I live, if the ministry of education found out, our school could lose their accreditation. If they truly can't afford a certain book, they shouldn't buy it. There are plenty of other choices! I know of at least two fairly rigorous-looking on-line homeschool curriculums which are based exclusively on public domain books, for instance. And there are several vendors who sell DRM-free books which do not have restrictions. I have no issues with (for example) removing DRM on personal books I purchase so that I can read them on a Kindle instead of a Sony. But to do what you are suggesting is imho crossing a line, and if somebody in charge finds out about it, the school could find themselves in more trouble than they might be expecting.
Steveaudus makes a good point about being prepared to pay extra for the license but not having any means to do so short of creating multiple accounts. That's a fair complaint, and I wonder why none of the major vendors have addressed it.