Publishing giant Macmillan has announced today the launch of it's own DynamicBooks software platform, allowing professors to edit digital textbooks without approval of the original author.
The instructors can add or delete text, re-arrange chapters, and add their own media and charts, using a simple online authoring tool.
The digital textbooks will go up for sale via dynamicbooks.com ... [ read the full article ]
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to think that a digital book should be anywhere near the cost of a dead tree version. that is what is wrong. once something can be replicated near infinitely for nearly no cost, the value drops incredibly. unless, you want to apply some unnatural form of property law that totally skews the basics of supply & demand economics. also, i'm sure they kill the first sale doctrine on these, too.
The only question I have is... What litigation exists to prevent a professor from changing the textbook and requiring his/her students to purchase the 'revised' version? How will they deal with the profits going to the proper place. In no way should the professors see a penny, being that it isn't their IP; it is someone else's IP with their spin on it...
