That's wicked cool. I hope that it replaces paper in *some* circumstances. Like, say, the ones you mention...

(And people call me a Luddite? Bah!)

As much as my back would appreciate it, I'm not sure I would want to use this in the casebook context quite yet.

I rely too much on highlighting and margin notes. (Perhaps the "Mark" button at the bottom of the unit allows for "highlighting", but without a keypad it seems unlikely that you can append notes to selections of text.)

If I've missed this ability in the features list, forgive me.

There's certainly a lot to be said for the new technology. Digitized texts save paper (read--fewer trees we have to chop down in the rain forests), spare our backs (read--fewer visits to the chiropractor), and bless us with shorter lines (read--fewer dirty looks from underpaid law school book store register clerks with watch timers set to ring at 5 p.m., the start of favorite bar's happy hour).

I wonder, though, whether these texts will quickly make the transition to paperless, digital format. Digital content is great for the user, but problems of piracy and copyright infringement loom large for the publisher and copyright holder. I suppose if the piracy protection were ironclad, we would be OK, but it seems that almost as quickly as new anti-piracy schemes are cooked up, ways to overcome the protections are crafted. At least if I were the publisher, all of this would make me think twice before digitizing all or part of casebook content.

Anon:

If I recall correctly from looking at the Japanese model, there's some reasonably robust anti-copying software involved. But I think law school textbooks would have even better protection. Each law student is told when we start school that our personal ethical record will eventually form part of our bar acceptance. Given the high price of tuition and the three years of lost wages, would a student really make illegal copies of textbooks if they felt it might prevent them from passing the bar?

You don't need to spend $400 for a silly dedicated ereader when you can just spend $100-200 on a Palm. I use mine to read books all the time and I love it. Being able to carry a big pile of books around in your pocket is incredibly cool. I agree that textbook publishers are going to resist converting their products to this format, but I hope we can figure out a way to overcome their objections. It's just too useful to let IP issues prevent it.

My own hope is to someday have all of Wexis in my pocket. Currently if Wexis was not a for-profit service we could all download their databases to our computers and use them even if we didn't have an internet connection. Imagine having every case or ALR article, etc., at your fingertips anywhere, anytime.

Yeah, I'll keep dreaming...