100,000 German books to be offered as e-books
By Paul Biba
This is a translation of an article that appeared in the German publication Libreka.de:
Some 100,000 German books will be available in digital format via an ambitious new online platform libreka! when the Leipzig book fair kicks off on March 12. …
“Our goal is to offer all deliverable German books within three to five years,” said Ronald Schild, head of the MVB marketing service of the German book publishing industry.
The total number of e-books available will eventually reach 500,000 to 700,000 and publishers will charge a set price for the titles that can be downloaded to different electronic book readers, he added. Up to 1,000 publishers will contribute to libreka!, which the MVB hopes to make the premier site for German e-books.
“The price will be different from printed books,” Schild said. “The e-book will be a bit more affordable.”
Thanks to Thomas, who also says: Some German announcement I read yesterday also stated that books could be read “on a Kindle or a Reader”, which _could_ mean that either no DRM is involved or the author of that announcement doesn’t have a clue of what he’s talking about 
March 3rd, 2009 at 2:59 am
I think the latter is far more likely.
Over here the publishers are just beginning to pay attention to the possibility that there may be a market for ebooks at all. Remember, we see the first retail market appearance of the sony prs-505 next week. Up to now all ereading devices in germany have been imports by private persons or small resellers. A DRM-free scenario is far beyond the visions of the publishers here yet.
Sadly I haven’t the time to translate, but there was an interesting article on the blossoming discussion in this online-publication of the german booksellers association about a meeting they held last week:
http://www.boersenblatt.net/308965/
All the best from over here !
A. Buck