In a Mashable piece, Josh Catone argues that digital textbooks don’t provide enough cost savings, are crippled by a lack of standardized format, and suffer from the same problem we’ve all seen with “rented” music tracks: Who actually “owns” the books?
Digital textbooks could in theory knock printed versions into the dustbin of history, but it may take longer than some of us (myself included) would like.
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I’ve already gone digital where possible. Most of my law textbooks still aren’t available in an electronic format, only one of my non-law specific textbooks is available online (David Friedman is a ridiculously awesome author and posted his book Law’s Order on his website). The other book for that class is available in a slightly less . . . non pirated form. Greg Mankiw and I have a date this semester via the Pirate Bay.