Sandisk has introduced their new Cruzer Freedom (Cruz@r Fr33d0m y0!11) to the burgeoning, and lucrative, student market. The device is a 256MB drive with a snazzy LED light and keychain that "lets students carry secure and legal Internet downloads of textbooks, novels, study aids, learning tools and other copyrighted content." Yes, copyrighted content includes porn, AVIs of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and instructions—that don't work, BTW—on how to turn morning glory seeds into LSD. It also uses Sandisk's FlashCP content protection scheme to keep everything secure. But wait, that's not all folks, here's the actual cool part (yes, one exists):

When a student plugs a Cruzer Freedom for the first time into a PC that is connected to the Internet, the device is initialized and can access the SanDisk Online Catalog. The student, with his or her parent's assistance, can then select content for downloading, and the content is secured to that specific drive. Digital books are interactive, so text can be highlighted, annotated and searched.

Whoa! That means that like, if I lose it, no one can use my books and I get to pay for a whole new drive AND books! Sweet! Thanks, Sandisk!

SanDisk offers USB flash drive for students [MacNN]

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