eBooks on the Horizon for College Campuses

The National Association of College Stores (NACS) announced its Media Solutions Pilot Programming which will involve seven campuses including: San Diego State, University of Colorado, New York University, University of Illinois, University of North Carolina, Bowling Green State, and UCLA. The NACS represents 3,100 retailers, primarily on campus retailers. The Media Solutions Pilot will establish e-kiosks that are capable of burning permanent DVDs, for students looking to purchase a personal copy, and temporary DVDs, for rental uses. The initial program will focus on entertainment content and DVD movies with the expected transition into DVD textbooks as early as next summer. A spokesman from The Chronicle of Higher Education is quoted as suggesting that the DRM technology for rentals won't be software-based; instead it looks like the rental DVD's will employ a limited life-time technology rendering the DVD unreadable after a predetermined time span.

It would appear that there are several potential goals for this project, the first and foremost to enter into the competitive market for DVD media rental and sales. Interestingly enough this announcement comes as congress passed the PRO-IP Act adding additional support for Intellectual Property Rights for Digital Media. With the war on pirated content on P2P networks waging on, the NACS seems poised to take advantage of providing a safe and economic alternative to illegal P2P downloads for college students. At the same time, with increased support for Intellectual Property Rights and digital media, it seems publishers are poised to cut some overhead by testing the waters with eBooks. An inevitable change for the publishing industry that's long overdue. All arguments about Hollywood's newest releases, pirating, and P2P networks cutting into industry profits aside, if the Pilot Program is successful with the DVD sales and rentals, and eTextbooks come to fruition sooner than later, we are looking at an incredibly powerful resource finally arriving. It's eco-friendly, easily searched and cross referenced (if implemented correctly), and maybe we'll even see a little of the overhead savings on our receipts. The only question that's left is what will the the eTextbook viewer look like? Will it be easier on our eyes and wallet, or just the backs of students who no longer carry printed books?