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From: |
Dora Scilipoti |
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Subject: |
www/education drm-in-school-ebooks-when-life-im... |
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Date: |
Wed, 29 Sep 2021 02:09:41 -0400 (EDT) |
CVSROOT: /web/www
Module name: www
Changes by: Dora Scilipoti <dora> 21/09/29 02:09:41
Added files:
education :
drm-in-school-ebooks-when-life-imitates-dystopian-stories.html
Log message:
New article.
CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/education/drm-in-school-ebooks-when-life-imitates-dystopian-stories.html?cvsroot=www&rev=1.1
Patches:
Index: drm-in-school-ebooks-when-life-imitates-dystopian-stories.html
===================================================================
RCS file: drm-in-school-ebooks-when-life-imitates-dystopian-stories.html
diff -N drm-in-school-ebooks-when-life-imitates-dystopian-stories.html
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+++ drm-in-school-ebooks-when-life-imitates-dystopian-stories.html 29 Sep
2021 06:09:40 -0000 1.1
@@ -0,0 +1,344 @@
+<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" -->
+<!-- Parent-Version: 1.96 -->
+<!-- This page is derived from /server/standards/boilerplate.html -->
+<!--#set var="DISABLE_TOP_ADDENDUM" value="yes" -->
+<title>DRM In School eBooks: When Life Imitates Dystopian Stories
+- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
+<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/side-menu.css" media="screen" />
+<!--#include virtual="/server/gnun/initial-translations-list.html" -->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
+
+<div class="nav">
+<a id="side-menu-button" class="switch" href="#navlinks">
+ <img id="side-menu-icon" height="25" width="31"
+ src="/graphics/icons/side-menu.png"
+ title="Education Contents"
+ alt=" [Education Contents] " />
+</a>
+
+<p class="breadcrumb">
+ <a href="/"><img src="/graphics/icons/home.png" height="26" width="26"
+ alt="GNU Home" title="GNU Home" /></a> /
+ <a href="/education/education.html">Education</a> /
+ <a href="/education/education.html#indepth">In Depth</a> /</p>
+</div>
+
+<!--GNUN: OUT-OF-DATE NOTICE-->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/top-addendum.html" -->
+
+<div style="clear: both"></div>
+<div id="last-div" class="reduced-width">
+
+<h2>DRM In School eBooks: When Life Imitates Dystopian Stories</h2>
+
+<address class="byline">by Barra O'Cathain <a href="#barra"
id="barra-rev"><sup>[*]</sup></a></address>
+
+<p>It always feels surreal to come across situations that are just a little
+too close to something you've read. It's even worse when you realize that
+something you've read is a dystopian story warning about the dangers of
+corporate greed and abuse of students.</p>
+
+<p>In February 1997, the magazine <cite>Communications of the
+<abbr title="Association for Computing Machinery">ACM</abbr></cite>
+published Richard M. Stallman's <a href="/philosophy/right-to-read.html">
+<cite>The Right to Read</cite></a>, a cautionary tale of a future where
+publishers and the government crack down on so-called “piracy”<a
+href="#piracy" id="piracy-rev"><sup>[1]</sup></a> to a massive extent.</p>
+
+<p>In <cite>The Right to Read</cite>, a college student named Lissa Lenz has
+an issue. Her computer, which contains all her textbooks and is the only
+tool for writing her midterm project, brakes down. She asks her friend Dan
+Halbert to borrow his computer. This is a big problem for Dan. If Lissa were
+to read his books, the SPA—a government agency created to combat
+sharing—would arrest him for copyright infringement and brand him
+a criminal. In the end, out of concern for his friend, he does the
+unthinkable: he gives Lissa his password in an attempt to hide the copyright
+infringement from the SPA, breaking the law with that simple act.</p>
+
+<p>Stallman predicted a lot of bad things in that piece of fiction. Sadly,
+they have already come true. <cite>The Right to Read</cite> is no longer
+a hypothetical, no longer just a story warning about a possible future.</p>
+
+<p>It is our <em>present</em>.</p>
+
+<h3>What is DRM?</h3>
+
+<p>DRM is an initialism which is supposed to stand for
+“Digital Rights Management,” but in practice it's more accurate
+to say it stands for “Digital <em>Restrictions</em> Management.”
+It refers to any means used to control copyrighted and proprietary digital
+works and hardware. Its purpose is to restrict what users can do. DRM is an
+umbrella term for various tools aimed at achieving that goal, such as legal
+agreements (which is the technique the dis-service in question is using,)
+or malware that seeks to prevent specific actions. For example, to prevent
+users from connecting to a website through the TOR network or from outside
+of a certain geographical area (Ireland, in my case.) For some examples of
+Digital Restrictions Management, take a look at <a
+href="/proprietary/proprietary-drm.html">
+https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/proprietary-drm.html</a>.</p>
+
+<h3>A Real-Life Encounter With Becoming Illegal</h3>
+
+<p>During the course of my secondary school education, I was contacted by a
+friend who was finding it difficult to study because he had managed to mess
+things up by leaving his textbooks in his locker over a mid-term break.
+Silly mistake aside, I thought nothing of lending him a modified version of
+my password so that he could access my copies of the ebooks, hosted at the
+publisher's platform (the “service”.) He'd be able to
+study and pass the upcoming exams, no harm done. Little did I know that,
+according to the terms and conditions of the dis-service, I had just
+committed the most vile, despicable act a human being could commit:
+help my friend—or, in the eyes of the publisher,
+“piracy.”</p>
+
+<p>The terms and conditions <a href="#terms" id="terms-rev"><sup>[2]</sup></a>
+of the dis-service are somewhat hard to find, which makes one feel the
+publisher is untrustworthy. They are not readily available on the login page
+or on the main library page; instead, they are hidden in the help section.
+I won't quote them exactly, but they do expressly forbid the sharing of
+passwords. They also contain several other things worth noting, which I will
+discuss later.</p>
+
+<p>The terms and conditions are very, very clear about one thing: you're not
+allowed to share the ebook in any way, with any means, under any
+circumstance.</p>
+
+<p>Let me clear up one thing. I don't actually own the ebook. The physical
+version of the book proudly displays a notice on the cover saying you'll get
+a free ebook version along with your purchase. That's misleading, at best.
+What I get is a time-limited license to access its contents, exclusively on
+the publisher's proprietary platform. I can't download it to get a local
+copy to read offline because the publisher claims it's “too big”
+to fit in removable media, ignoring the fact that I may just want it on my
+hard drive. I decided to see if the claim was true and found that the grand
+total size of the ebook came in orders of magnitude lower than even the
+capacity of a CD-R disc. Are we really to believe the reason we can't
+download a copy of a digital book is that it can't fit in removable media?
+In my opinion, the real reason they don't want people to download copies is
+to prevent sharing.</p>
+
+<h3>Common Restrictions</h3>
+
+<p>Some new schools where I live in Ireland are using iPads (which have a
+whole host of <a href="/proprietary/malware-apple.html">privacy and ethical
+concerns</a> in and of itself) with the goal of moving all their student's
+books to these online “services.” Benefits cited often include r
+educed weight in student's bags, ease of organization, and multimedia
+capabilities. All of which are true, but what is often neglected is that the
+move to digital devices requires students to agree to terms of service
+imposed by companies. These terms restrict the student's ability to explore,
+research, and <em>learn</em>.</p>
+
+<p>There are also a lot of practical downsides to ebooks on these platforms.
+They have to be used with a constant connection to the Internet, which will
+be difficult for many schools to maintain. They can't be downloaded, so
+students who don't have easy access to the Internet will be essentially
+stuck with no books. They may not be supported on all devices, or may be
+restricted to a single operating system or browser. Probably the biggest
+downside is that they can be obtained only from one centralized location,
+with authorized access granted only to the person who paid for it, and taken
+away after a limited time. Could you imagine a company coming to your
+graduation and wordlessly snatching your physical books back? A silly,
+ridiculous image, but it's what happens with ebooks.</p>
+
+<p>When schools use physical books, students at least have the option of
+buying them second-hand, or getting them handed down from a friend or a
+sibling. If the practice of getting an ebook access code from a single
+centralized publisher continues, we may see a publisher monopoly
+where textbooks needed for our free education are held away from us with a
+massive price tag. We may end up with a situation like Texas Instruments,
+where a company with a stranglehold on education can charge astronomical
+prices without the need to innovate or upgrade. Such a position was gained
+by pushing themselves as the educational standard in the National Council of
+Teachers of Mathematics. Once established as such, the company began to
+abuse its position by refusing to reduce the price of their calculators as
+they become cheaper to manufacture year after year. This leaves the company
+with gross profit margins of up to 90 percent, all the while making it very
+difficult for lower income families to educate their children.</p>
+
+<p>Students don't have much of a say about which platforms they'll be
+required to use. The school may give them an email address, provided by
+Microsoft Office 365, and require them to agree to the terms imposed
+by the publisher. Students may need books from different publishers, and may
+have to agree to multiple contracts. And even if they do agree to a given
+version of a contract, most publishers reserve the right to change it.
+Perhaps the publisher might—as I discovered in the terms of the
+dis-service I mentioned earlier—reserve the right to later charge fees
+to access the books. Do the students really have a choice? Not at the moment.
+Unless something changes, they don't have a choice. They're forced to accept
+the terms, no matter what they think of them, otherwise they lose their
+chances for education by losing their books.</p>
+
+<h3>Challenging the Assumptions</h3>
+
+<p>Some may say that these terms are reasonable, that students aren't
+entitled to learn how the tools they use during their education work, or
+to share information with their peers.</p>
+
+<p>Would you object to a student reading her schoolbook while on holidays in
+France? If she reads it while traveling to Northern Ireland? On a bus? In a
+public library?</p>
+
+<p>Of course not.</p>
+
+<p>Would you also object to, say, a student lending a copy of his book to a
+friend? Allowing someone sitting next to him to look at his book? If a
+student copies a sentence from a book into his notes, is he a thief or a
+pirate? Should the teacher report him for illegal activity?</p>
+
+<p>Of course not.</p>
+
+<p>And what if the student were to ask how the book was bound? How the paper
+was made? What the ink was made up of? How the process of writing works? How
+they are delivered to bookstores to be sold? Should this student be punished
+for attempting to learn about the publisher's techniques?</p>
+
+<p>Of course not.</p>
+
+<p>And finally, would you object to students selling their textbooks when
+they no longer have a need for them? To giving away their notes, made using
+information from the book, to other students? Would you say students
+shouldn't be allowed to give away their book if it has a line crossed out
+and rewritten?</p>
+
+<p>Of course not.</p>
+
+<p>My friend made quite an apt summary: <q>It's like [school systems] put
+the rights of companies over the rights of the students.</q></p>
+
+<p>With the current landscape of educational institutions planning to
+introduce new technologies, we need to be careful. Without proper
+consideration and action, we may find ourselves in a reality even closer to
+the one described in <cite>The Right to Read</cite>. School boards have
+already made mistakes in the past, like with Texas Instruments. I would urge
+everyone to start pushing against this sort of terms. Here are some
+suggestions:</p>
+
+<ul>
+<li>During the decision process about which textbooks to use, you could
+petition your school to consider the terms and conditions of ebook
+services and make it a requirement that ebooks be DRM-free and
+downloadable.</li>
+
+<li>You could start the preparation of a textbook for your local
+cirriculum and publish it under a free license such as the <a
+href="/licenses/licenses.html#FDL">GNU Free Documentation License</a>,
+<a
+href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/";>CC BY-SA</a>, or
+similar.</li>
+
+<li>Support the FSF's <a
+href="https://www.defectivebydesign.org/ebooks.html";>campaign</a> to
+abolish eBook DRM.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>Let's make sure schools don't punish learning. </p>
+
+<p>Let's make sure <a href="/philosophy/ebooks-must-increase-freedom.html">
+ebooks increase our freedom, not decrease it</a>.</p>
+
+<h3>Thanks</h3>
+
+<p>Thanks to Richard Stallman, Andy Oram, and the GNU Education Team for
+the idea and the help.</p>
+
+<div class="infobox">
+<hr />
+<h4>Author's Notes</h4>
+
+<p><a href="#piracy-rev" id="piracy">[1]</a> “Piracy” is a
+<a href="/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#Piracy">smear word</a>.</p>
+
+<p><a href="#terms-rev" id="terms">[2]</a> Some notes from the Terms and
+Conditions of dis-services: </p>
+
+<ul>
+ <li>Passwords must not be shared. </li>
+ <li>The publisher reserves the right to later charge for access to the
+ dis-service.</li>
+ <li>The reader can't distribute any information from the dis-service unless
+ in ways explicitly allowed.</li>
+ <li>It is forbidden to attempt to learn how the dis-service works by
+ reverse-engineering, attempting to derive source code, or any other
+ means.</li>
+ <li>The books are region-locked (only accessible in a certain area) to the
+ Republic of Ireland. </li>
+ <li>No warranties are provided. The dis-service shall not be liable for any
+ damages, yet expects you to be liable for damages to them.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<h4>Footnote</h4>
+<p><a href="#barra-rev" id="barra">[*]</a> Barra O'Cathain is a young hacker
+from Ireland. He is currently persuing a bachelor's degree in Computer
+Science. His fascination with free software and programming began when he
+came across the Quake III Arena source code, which was made available under
+the GNU GPL in 2005.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<!--#include virtual="/education/education-menu.html" -->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" -->
+<div id="footer" role="contentinfo">
+<div class="unprintable">
+
+<p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to
+<a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org";><gnu@gnu.org></a>.
+There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a>
+the FSF. Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent
+to <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org";><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p>
+
+<p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph,
+ replace it with the translation of these two:
+
+ We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality
+ translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection.
+ Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard
+ to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org";>
+ <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p>
+
+ <p>For information on coordinating and contributing translations of
+ our web pages, see <a
+ href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
+ README</a>. -->
+Please see the <a
+href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
+README</a> for information on coordinating and contributing translations
+of this article.</p>
+</div>
+
+<!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to
+ files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should
+ be under CC BY-ND 4.0. Please do NOT change or remove this
+ without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first.
+ Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the
+ document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the
+ document was modified, or published.
+
+ If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too.
+ Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying
+ years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable
+ year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including
+ being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system).
+
+ There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers
+ Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. -->
+
+<p>Copyright © 2021 Barra O'Cathain</p>
+
+<p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license"
+href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/";>Creative
+Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</a>.</p>
+
+<!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" -->
+
+<p class="unprintable">Updated:
+<!-- timestamp start -->
+$Date: 2021/09/29 06:09:40 $
+<!-- timestamp end -->
+</p>
+</div>
+</div><!-- for class="inner", starts in the banner include -->
+</body>
+</html>
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Dora Scilipoti <=