Princeton vs. the bloggers

The diatribes began practically before the ink was dry on the press releases that announced plans by Princeton and other universities to offer digital textbooks.

Some students and others thought it was a good way to save trees and money (33 percent less than the shelf price), not to mention orthopedic bills later in life. But in the blogosphere, where freedom of information reigns, critics immediately seized on the e-book program as a classic example of why digital rights management is evil.

Blog community response:

"A product this weak will die on its own. The problem with DRM is not that bad products can be offered, but that public policy sometimes protects bad products by thwarting the free market and the free flow of ideas."
--Freedom to Tinker

"I'm envisioning students taking Internet law and technology classes conducting their own experiment with these textbooks: documenting the ways they block the traditional activities associated with learning and scholarship."
--Corante

"How dare they say 'the information is the same as the print version'...I guess as a profession we haven't had to deal with information that expires now have we? Perhaps it's time we start."
--Librarian.net

"It's no surprise that Princeton is on the cutting edge in education, but now they have a very cool digital textbook program. It obviously needs a lot of work before it will be perfect, but it's an awesome idea."
--A Serendipitous Intention

"Will anybody actually buy such a thing? If they do, they should be expelled for having a low IQ."
--The J-Walk Blog