College textbooks: electronic versions.

Existing law establishes the various segments of the public higher education system in the state. These segments include the University of California, which is administered by the Regents of the University of California, the California State University, which is administered by the Trustees of the California State University, and the California Community Colleges, which is administered by the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges. Existing law requires publishers of instructional material for use at public institutions of postsecondary education to make instructional material available in electronic form in a format that is compatible with commonly used braille translation and speech synthesis software upon the written request of a campus of a university or college when required for the use of students who are disabled. This bill would require that publishers of textbooks offered for sale at a public or a private postsecondary institution of education make the textbooks available, in whole or in part, to the extent practicable, in an electronic format by January 1, 2020. The bill would require that electronic versions of textbooks include the same content as the printed versions and would allow the electronic versions to be copy-protected.