Patent Granted to Encourage Purchase of Digital Textbooks

Puerto Rico-based prof's system will enforce textbook purchase, reduce piracy. Enlarge / Professor Vogel's new patent, if licensed widely, would compel students to prove that they've purchased a digital textbook. In a newly-approved patent, an economics professor hopes to bring to the academic publishing world what seems to be forthcoming in the video game industry—new restrictions that would seemingly eliminate a secondary market for digital goods and prevent legal borrowing. Last week, the 2006 patent for a “Web-based system and method to capture and distribute royalties for access to copyrighted academic texts by preventing unauthorized access to discussion boards