30 Posts in 30 Days #26: Socially Protected Content
On my way home yesterday afternoon I was listening to episode #176 of the Beyond the Book podcast from the Copyright Clearance Center. The episode featured two speakers on “Interactive Textbooks: Poised for Success?” The episode is only about 30 minutes long and I highly recommend it to anyone reading this that has anything to do with college textbooks.
What prompted this post however is something that presenter Jeff Shelstad of Flat World Knowledge said. His business publishes textbooks which are available in many formats (electronic and print), editable, and CC licensed. The electronic copies are DRM free yet “socially protected". What he means is that every PDF downloaded by a student contains the name of that student on every page. In other words, if that student starts passing it along, you’ll immediately know who did it.
I must say this is an interesting concept. I suppose it would make me think twice before sharing something I’m not supposed to. I’m not sure it would stop me from downloading the material though.
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
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