I've done two university degrees in the last six years. In all that time I hardly read a single paper book. The academic institutions (which weren't Irish) made all their materials, including course books, available in common electronic formats. What's more they had no copy protection, so there was no requirement to view them only with proprietary readers etc. That allowed me to use my tablet and software of choice, with fancy features like automatically trimming margins to maximise screen real estate. I was able to carry dozens and dozens of books around on a tablet weighing less than a kilo.
Roll forward to now. I'm "giving back" by doing some maths grinds for a Leaving Cert student. The books are colossal. In fairness to the publisher, they are slightly ahead of the game by giving access to an electronic version of the book once you've purchased the dead tree version. But it's a proprietary e-reader, it's online only, and the quality is rubbish -- they've made it close to unusable in their attempts to lock it down against copyright infringement.
I'm wondering about two things. Is it legal to make a copy of a book that you own? I believe that it is legal in the USA, although I haven't seen anything definitive. Regardless of the legality, I've made a copy for my own use (which required a fair amount of software trickery). Would be nice to know if I can give it to my student, though. (Obviously they have their own legitimate copy of the dead tree version too).
On a wider note, I'm wondering how the situation is so archaic in Ireland. How can we possibly justify printing forest-loads of paper for schoolbooks each year when electronic formats could satisfy a great deal of need? I can only imagine there is an iron grip on the content rights on the parts of the large publishers. But surely the Department of Education could play a role here. I'm sure they must be involved in the commissioning of new books, so why can't they also produce them? They could save the environment, save vast amounts of money for parents, save the scam of old editions having to be discarded after minor revisions etc. It seems like a complete no-brainer.
I can't be the first person to think of this. I've no kids, but surely parents are jumping up and down at the silliness and expense of it all? Is there some sort of cosy cartel operating here?
Roll forward to now. I'm "giving back" by doing some maths grinds for a Leaving Cert student. The books are colossal. In fairness to the publisher, they are slightly ahead of the game by giving access to an electronic version of the book once you've purchased the dead tree version. But it's a proprietary e-reader, it's online only, and the quality is rubbish -- they've made it close to unusable in their attempts to lock it down against copyright infringement.
I'm wondering about two things. Is it legal to make a copy of a book that you own? I believe that it is legal in the USA, although I haven't seen anything definitive. Regardless of the legality, I've made a copy for my own use (which required a fair amount of software trickery). Would be nice to know if I can give it to my student, though. (Obviously they have their own legitimate copy of the dead tree version too).
On a wider note, I'm wondering how the situation is so archaic in Ireland. How can we possibly justify printing forest-loads of paper for schoolbooks each year when electronic formats could satisfy a great deal of need? I can only imagine there is an iron grip on the content rights on the parts of the large publishers. But surely the Department of Education could play a role here. I'm sure they must be involved in the commissioning of new books, so why can't they also produce them? They could save the environment, save vast amounts of money for parents, save the scam of old editions having to be discarded after minor revisions etc. It seems like a complete no-brainer.
I can't be the first person to think of this. I've no kids, but surely parents are jumping up and down at the silliness and expense of it all? Is there some sort of cosy cartel operating here?