MESSAGE
| DATE | 2014-05-07 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] DRM books
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https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/05/aspen-students-your-property-book-not-your-property
Aspen to Students: Your Property Book is Not Your Property
EFF has been fighting for years for the principle that if you bought it,
you own it. The first sale doctrine – the law that allows you to
resell books and that protects libraries from claims of copyright
infringement – is crucial to consumers. Unfortunately, first sale
has been under threat in the digital realm, as copyright holders
increasingly insist on saddling “sales” with onerous
restrictions. You may think you are buying a product (like software,
music and ebooks), but as far as they are concerned, you are just
renting it, on their terms, whether you know it or not.
The latest attack on first sale comes from Aspen Publishers, and the
target is the lucrative textbook market. Aspen is insisting that
students who are assigned and purchase physical textbooks Aspen
published cannot resell those books to recoup some of the expense.
Aspen’s announced its move in an email to professors. In the coming
academic year, Aspen declares, its popular property law case book will
only be available under a so-called ‘Connected Casebook’
program. Students will still pay full price (a cool $200) but will be
required to return their casebooks at the end of the semester. Students
will supposedly also receive “lifetime” access to a digital
companion to the casebook. But, as Professor James Grimmelmann noted,
“we know from sad experience that gerbils have better life
expectancy than DRM platforms.”
The ‘Connected Casebook’ program is a cynical ploy to destroy
the secondhand market for books. This is not a situation where Aspen is
offering a cheaper rental alternative. Students still pay full price.
And students can mark-up and highlight their books (meaning the books
will likely be pulped after return to Aspen). The only real change is
that students can’t sell their textbooks to next year’s class.
With textbooks already adding enormous cost to education, this is a
lose-lose deal for students.
What is worse, Aspen’s new program sets a dangerous precedent that
flies in the face of long-standing first sale protections. Back in 1908,
the Supreme Court ruled that a publisher could not prevent consumers
from reselling legally purchased books. The Court reaffirmed this
principle just last year in a case involving textbooks. Aspen appears to
be hoping the some recent bad decisions involving first sale and
software can be extended to the physical realm. We hope courts would not
allow this. If Aspen’s ploy is successful, it could threaten used
bookstores and even libraries.
Aspen is offering this outrageous deal because they think they can get
away with it. The company is counting on professors being reluctant to
change their syllabus. Once the casebook is assigned, students will feel
forced to buy – sorry, license – the required text under unfair
terms. But there’s still time to fight back. Professors: Refuse to
assign casebooks that students can’t keep. Students: Ask your
professors – now, before the semester ends – not to build their
class plans around books locked down by such onerous restrictions. If
the market rejects Aspen’s ploy, we won’t need to challenge it
in court.
Finally, concerned professors and students should join our growing
campus activism mailing list to learn more about how to engage in
digital rights issues on campus.
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