BILL ANALYSIS �
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Date of Hearing: April 17, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
Marty Block, Chair
AB 2471 (Lara) - As Amended: April 9, 2012
SUBJECT : Postsecondary education: e-textbooks.
SUMMARY : Requires the Trustees of the California State
University (CSU) and the governing board of the California
Community Colleges (CCC) and urges the Regents of the University
of California (UC) and the governing body of each private
postsecondary educational institution that offers a
baccalaureate degree to adopt policies to prohibit the
assignment of an e-textbook unless that e-textbook complies with
various provisions. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires an e-textbook assigned as required or recommended
reading in a course offered at a postsecondary institution to
meet all of the following:
a) For content licensed as proprietary copyright, be
offered with pricing tiers that reflect consumer access
rights over periods of time. At a minimum, both a "rental"
price and a "lifetime purchase" price shall be listed by
the publisher, clearly noting consumer access to the
e-textbook over periods of time.
b) Be offered with cloud storage, and be housed by
copyright publishers for access by consumers.
c) For content licensed as proprietary copyright, the
publisher must make available to the consumer a clear and
explicit refund policy allowing a full refund for a
purchased e-textbook for up to 14 days from the date of
purchase.
d) The publisher must provide the consumer with explicit
digital rights management information, including, but not
limited to, the percentage of the e-textbook that can be
printed, the percentage that can be copied and pasted
outside and exported of the electronic reading environment,
and the durability of any notes or highlights the consumer
creates.
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e) The publisher must offer electronic subscriptions to
online services relating to the e-textbook that are not
bundled with the e-textbook, to enable students with a
hardcopy version of the textbook to purchase these
electronic subscriptions without purchasing the e-textbook.
2)Defines the various terms used in the legislation.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires textbook publishers that offer textbooks for sale at
the UC, the CSU, the CCC, or private postsecondary
institutions in the state, to the extent practicable, to make
those textbooks, in whole or in part, available for sale in an
electronic format by January 1, 2020, and requires the
electronic version of any textbook to contain the same content
as the printed version, and authorizes the electronic version
to be copy protected.
2)Requires textbook publishers, for textbooks published on or
after January 1, 2010, to print a summary of the substantive
content differences between the new edition and any prior
edition, as well as the copyright date of the previous
edition.
3)Urges textbook publishers to take specific actions to reduce
the cost of college textbooks and requires the CSU, CCC, and
requests the UC work with academic senates to encourage
faculty to consider cost friendly practices in assigning
textbooks, to disclose to students how the new editions of
textbooks differ from previous editions and the cost of the
selected textbooks, to review procedures for faculty to inform
college and university bookstores to textbook selections, and
to encourage faculty to work closely with publishers and
college and university bookstores in creating economically
sound bundles and packages.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : Purpose of this bill . According to the author, a
considerable cost to students seeking higher education is
textbooks. The California State Auditor has reported that the
significant price of textbooks makes it more likely that some
students will forgo or delay attending college. While student
fees have increased considerably during recent academic years,
textbook prices have risen at an even greater rate. In response
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to these trends, California has taken several steps to address
the rising costs of textbooks, including, most recently,
mandating that textbooks be available by January 1, 2020 in
electronic format. Electronic textbooks have the potential to
increase convenience and reduce costs for students. However,
students have encountered several problems with online
materials, including:
1)Lack of notification of online materials charges . This is
particularly troublesome for students who have a specific
budget for tuition and textbooks and are notified about online
fees after enrollment in the class.
2)Unclear refund policies . Many times, when a student needs to
a drop class, publishers do not provide refunds, even when the
student has dropped the class within the time period allowed
by colleges or universities.
3)Access charges . Students often find that if the student
decides to take the same class in the future they are required
to purchase the access fee again.
4)Expiration of access . After a course is completed, students
find that they cannot download the material for future
reference because access codes expire after a certain date.
For the student, there is nothing tangible - no proof of
having taken the course or purchased the materials - as most
publishers won't allow students to download e-textbooks even
if they have paid for the materials.
According to the author, this bill would ensure uniformity of
practices among publishers of electronic textbooks. The author
argues that the current lack of uniform practices often denies
students information and options they need to enable them to
make fully informed decisions regarding what can be an enormous
portion of their limited budgets.
Shared responsibility and current efforts . In 2008, the
California State Auditor released a report entitled
"Affordability of College Textbooks," which identified
publishers, campus bookstores, and faculty members as
responsible parties needing to work together to reduce costs and
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properly disclose textbook information to students. This bill
appears intended to respond to that recommendation by placing
requirements regarding electronic textbooks on higher education
segments. However, considering the requirements contained in
this bill are primarily under the control of textbook publishers
and distributors, the Committee may wish to consider if it would
be more appropriate to direct these requirements to publishers
and distributors.
It is also important to note that California's public higher
education segments have already undertaken several efforts to
expand online learning options and increase affordability for
students. For example, CSU's online learning approaches
include:
1)MERLOT (www.merlot.org) is an online, open and free library of
online teaching and learning materials (websites) that faculty
and students can use in their teaching and learning. MERLOT is
administered by the CSU but is an international consortium of
higher education institutions, professional organizations, and
corporations.
2)Digital Marketplace Initiative (www.dmproject.org) is a CSU
project that develops and deploys technology and business
innovations that will lead to more affordable and accessible
educational content at lower costs. For example, the project
includes a technology tool that allows a faculty member or
student to type in the book number of their textbook and the
program searches for free/open online materials that cover
similar topics to those covered in the textbook.
3)Affordable Learning Solutions Initiative
(http://als.csuprojects.org) is a CSU project that directly
delivers services to faculty and students for finding more
affordable and accessible course materials.
It is unclear how the provisions of this bill would affect
existing efforts of the CSU and other public higher education
segments to create affordable online learning tools and to
negotiate with publishers to provide affordable solutions for
students.
Rental and lifetime purchase . This bill would require
electronic textbooks to be available for both rental and
lifetime purchase. According to information obtained by
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Committee staff, at least one of the major providers of
electronic textbooks for publishers would not be able to satisfy
the lifetime purchase option for digital content. Lifetime
purchase would require the publisher to either maintain storage
of every electronic textbook ever produced or to provide a
"downloadable" version for students to store the electronic
textbook on their own device. The download requirements are not
used by all electronic textbooks distributed for a variety of
reasons, including digital rights management technologies and
version management. According to information provided to
Committee staff, the requirement of a lifetime purchase option
could prevent a number of current and major electronic textbook
vendors from serving students within California's public higher
education segments. Committee staff recommends the author
continue to work with publishers and the higher education
segments to ensure that the lifetime purchase requirement
contained in this bill does not unreasonably limit the ability
of the segments to partner with electronic textbook publishers
and distributors.
Cloud storage requirement . This bill would require electronic
textbooks to be available through cloud storage, which means
that publishers or electronic textbook distributors would be
required to provide continuous online access services. Cloud
storage generally refers to saving data to an off-site storage
system maintained by a third party, instead of storing
information to one's computer hard drive or other local storage
device. The internet provides the connection between one's
computer and the database. Committee staff understands this
requirement is intended to ensure that students can access
electronic textbooks from any computer with internet access.
According to information obtained by Committee staff, some
electronic textbook distributors are currently only providing
students the option of downloading electronic textbooks to a
single computer. It is unclear if the cloud storage requirement
would add costs to publishers and distributors or whether those
costs would then be passed on to students. It is also unclear
if the cloud storage requirement would result in publishers and
distributors choosing to no longer make electronic textbooks
available in a format that provides access to students when not
on the internet. The term cloud storage is a fairly commonly
used term to describe internet-based storage of data; however,
considering the rapidly changing technology surrounding
electronic textbooks, the Committee may wish to consider if it
is appropriate to place this term in statute. The author may
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also wish to consider if students should be ensured access to an
electronic textbook when in areas without internet service, in
addition to the web-based access provided under the cloud
storage requirement.
Suggested amendments .
1)Refund policies . According to the author, this bill is
intended to align electronic textbook refund policies with
hard-copy textbook policies. The author argues that students
may have to drop out of a class or decide they need to take
the class at a later date. Instead of incurring a sunk cost,
this bill would make a refund available to these students. A
technical amendment is needed to clarify that a student is
entitled to a refund for "at least" 14 days from the date of
purchase.
2)Electronic textbook . Existing law requires textbook
publishers to make available electronic versions of textbooks
available to students by January 1, 2020. It is unclear if
the definition of "e-textbook" contained in this bill would
include the electronic versions of textbooks as mandated under
current law. If the provisions of this bill are intended to
cover the electronic versions of textbooks required under
current law (EC �66410), then Committee staff recommends
clarifying amendments.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on File
Opposition
None on File
Analysis Prepared by : Laura Metune / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960