e-Casebooks meeting

The National Law Journal reports (subscription required) that law professors and publishing executives will meet in Seattle Sept. 27 to discuss how legal casebooks could be made available electronically on a widespread basis, possibly on handheld devices such as Amazon's Kindle and the Sony Reader. Ecasebooks would lighten students' backpacks and allow professors to customize course materials. Publishers have concerns about copyrights and the ability to protect electronic casebooks from piracy; and devices such as Kindle and Sony Reader, while useful for leisure reading, do not allow law students to highlight or write notes. The meeting is organized by Edward L. Rubin, dean of Vanderbilt University Law School; Ronald K.L. Collins, scholar in the Washington office of the First Amendment Center; and Dean Kellye Testy and Professor David Skover of Seattle University School of Law, where the event is taking place.