VitalSource

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VitalSource

Basic information
Founded	1994
Legal Structure	Private
Industry	Digital textbooks, Educational technology
Also known as
Official website	https://www.vitalsource.com/

VitalSource is a digital textbook & course material provider serving students & educational institutions, primarily in the United States higher education market. The company offers digital access to textbooks & other educational content through its online platform & apps, with various license durations including short-term rentals & what it markets as "lifetime" access.

Consumer-impact summary

Overview of concerns that arise from the conduct towards users of the product (if applicable):

• User Freedom
• User Privacy
• Business Model
• Market Control

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Incidents

"Lifetime" access controversy (December 2024)

Main article: VitalSource "Lifetime" false advertising

VitalSource markets certain digital textbook licenses as offering "lifetime" access while defining this term as a limited five-year period. The practice came to wider attention in December 2024 when VitalSource published a California disclosure page in response to AB 2426, a state law requiring companies to clearly disclose when digital goods are licensed rather than owned. Despite this disclosure, VitalSource continues to use the term "lifetime" in its storefront marketing without prominently displaying the five-year limitation alongside shorter-duration options that do show explicit expiration dates

Products

This is a list of the company's product lines with articles on this wiki.

• Example product line one (release date): Short summary of the product's incidents.
• Example product line two (release date):

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