Comments on: Coming to campus: E-books with expiration dates

Bookstores at Princeton, University of Utah and others are offering bargain textbook downloads that expire after five months.

[ethically]

That's just not right.

Whoa, wait a minute there. A 33% discount (ONLY a 33% discount) for a book with a TIME LIMIT???

That should be illegal, it's such a rip off.

I can buy a book for 100% of the price, and even up to 75% off, but at least I could read it over for all of eternity if I needed too.

I am all for the idea of eBooks, or books on discs. I think it'd be better for the environment for us to eliminate paper as much as possible seeing as how much we are using electronics. But NO ONE is stupid enough to buy an electronic book that's going to expire. Especially for only 33% off. It would make sense for an expiring book if you were borrowing it from a library (and didn't have to pay money), because it would prevent people from stealing the book. But if you're going to sell kids eBooks or books on discs, here's a thought - make them somewhat cheaper and don't put the expiration date on them. It's strict enough that the file can only be opened on one computer.

My point is - it's strict enough to be selling books that cannot be resold. Making it so the student who bought it can't read it past a certain amount of time is too much of an off-set to encourage buying it.

Or at least, I'd never do it. I'd look to buying it elsewhere - permanently.

[stlouis_jumper]

E-books

I have been attending University of Phoenix on-line now for some time. Of course our books are all on-line. They offer us great freedom with the ability to download the books to whatever personal computer we use. Sometimes though keeping your book on your computer sucks. I would like to read a book in bed sometimes. I bought the Sony Reader thanking this would solve my problem. It didn't (no command line interface) meant I couldn't unlock it. So for now I am stuck with my PC. If I had my choice I would go with a text book because of (Pick-up-and-Go).