Posted 03/06/09 at 02:15:26 PM by David Murphy

Open-source software and hardware are common elements of the technological world.  And now the ancient counterparts to these modern products, written books, have finally jumped the gap into open waters as well.  Virginia's currently accepting public comments for its first-ever open-source school textbook, "21st Century Physics FlexBook: A Compilation of Contemporary and Emerging Technologies."

Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike, the project ran from concept to creation in a little under four months. That's an impressive amount of time for the creation of a full textbook.  Thirteen teachers from Virginia's K-12 physics community joined up with university and industry volunteers across a number of states to develop the book's eleven chapters.  And each chapter was given no less than three peer reviews from college professors, related authors, and high school and college students.

So what's a flexbook?

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Posted 11/19/08 at 04:09:55 PM by Andy Salisbury

Just last week the RIAA commemorated the signing of an absurd new law in Tennessee that states:

"Each public and private institution of higher education in the state that has student residential computer networks shall:

[...]

[R]easonably attempt to prevent the infringement of copyrighted works over the institution's computer and network resources, if such institution receives fifty (50) or more legally valid notices of infringement as prescribed by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 within the preceding year."

In short, if you’re going to school in Tennessee you’re boned. Since the entertainment industry was unable to get a solid framework for universities in the Higher Education Act passed by Congress just earlier this year, the RIAA has decided to attack universities by using infringement notices.

What’s worse is that the law will cost the fine folks of Tennessee a whopping $9.5 million in new software, hardware and personnel, with an annual cost of $1.5 million for the personnel and maintenance. None of this money will go towards artists or record labels represented by the RIAA.

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Posted 11/15/07 at 01:39:28 PM by Erin Simon

A new federal financial aid bill includes unprecedented copyright provisions calling on universities to curb students' filesharing.

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