Texas and Massachusetts are among the potential culprits. More via The Yale LawMeme. That's not all, alas, according to Edward Felten. Um, would you believe that firewalls would be theoretically illegal? Oh, and outrages in the same vein are said to be under consideration in South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alaska, Tennessee and Colorado. Have we really reached the point where an understanding of the Net is a disqualification for running for office at any level of government?
posted by David Rothman at 5:09 AM | permanent link

"...enthusiasts...continue to use the Apple Newton, a handheld that was abandoned by its manufacturer just more than five years ago." - San Jose Mercury News.

The TeleRead take: I'm especially impressed by one Newtonian's observation that the size is right--bigger than a PDA but smaller than a Tablet PC. Anyone out there using a Newton for e-books? Sure enough, as mentioned on the Newton Reference site. Also see a Wired article and the Apple Newton Research Page.
posted by David Rothman at 5:58 PM | permanent link

What's next--the recording industry sending grandmas to jail? The AARP is advertising on Kazaa, reports the New York Times.

The TeleRead take: E-books right now appeal more to younger than older people, but this could rapidly change. Significantly, TeleRead would make file-swapping a snap--with due payments to providers of content still under copyright.
posted by David Rothman at 4:15 AM | permanent link

Microsoft Reader has its flaws, but it is among the more popular standards for e-books, and if you want to use that format for your own efforts, then check out Pocket PC Thoughts. (Via Pocket PC eBooks Watch.)
posted by David Rothman at 2:42 AM | permanent link

"...not everything is answerable. And occasionally Answers will refuse to even try. We asked for the personal worth of Google founders Sergai Brin and Larry Page. A message came back saying that the question breached the conditions of use and had been removed." - The Age, discussing Google Answers.

The TeleRead take: Oh, come on, guys. Who do you think you are, Microsoft?
posted by David Rothman at 2:26 AM | permanent link

"Software, music and movies that employ copy-protection schemes must be prominently labeled with consumer warnings, according to a bill introduced in Congress this week" - CNet.

The TeleRead take: Sen. Ron Wyden's bill is a tougher version of one from Rep. Rick Boucher of Virginia.
posted by David Rothman at 2:04 AM | permanent link

Get this. A new proposal from Hollywood, whoops, Mexico, would not just extend copyright terms from the-author's-life-and-70 years to life-and-100. Afterwards, the Mexican government could collect royalties. So much for the concept for public domain, eh? Just nationalize it away to finance bureaucracy.

Meantime, as U.S. copyright expert Lawrence Lessig has pointed out, while copyrights were in effect, Hollywood could make out like a bandit at the expense of the preservation of Mexican culture. How splendid a distillation of the obnoxious sides of both Mexican and U.S. politics!

Imagine--a give-away to Yankee entertainment tycoons and Mexican government bureaucracy at the same time! What's disturbing is that here in the States, the Democrats, who have favored both oppressive copyright law in recent years and big government for the most part, just might look South someday for inspiration.

The TeleRead site may have more commentary on this later. Meanwhile you can read comments directly from Mexican copyright experts.

April 1 isn't that far off, and I just keep hoping this is an April Fool's Day joke.

Item spotted via The Shifted Librarian.
posted by David Rothman at 11:18 AM | permanent link

Before the e-book-readers and PDAs came the laptops. Before the laptops came the luggables, and before the luggables came the dreams and temerity of techno-entrepreneurs like Adam Osborne, who introduced the pioneering 23-pound computer he named for himself. He was a major advocate of low-cost programs and even called one of his companies "Paperback Software." Last Tuesday, in a village in southern India, where his sister had been caring for him, he did something totally out of character and died peacefully in his sleep. RIP.
posted by David Rothman at 10:23 PM | permanent link

Better Late Than Never Department: D-Lib this month discusses education and digital libraries and among other things offers a variety of examples using Greenstone software. Another education-oriented collection of articles appears in the February and March issues of the Journal of Digital Information.
posted by David Rothman at 11:07 PM | permanent link

Have you seen Kevin Sites' Web log from Iraq? It's been suspended, perhaps forever, apparently the victim of corporate censors at CNN. Good example of the need for a variety of business models--commercial, nonprofit and library-funded--as TeleRead advocates. Guess who owns CNN. Yes, of course: AOL Time Warner. Let's hope that the new owners of the about-to-be-shed book division will be tolerant of quirky projects like Sites'. Memo to CNN: Check out another Iraq blog. As Dan Gillmore at the SJ Merc sees it, as do some others, this one is real. A little ironic, no? A blog from Dictator Central will go on, but Sites' blog can't. (Sites item found via J.D. Lasica's blog.)
posted by David Rothman at 10:32 PM | permanent link

"A group representing college media centers is warning the U.S. Copyright Office about a possible conflict between two federal laws, one meant to limit electronic access to copyrighted material and the other designed to broaden access to the same material for online education. At issue are the Technology Education and Copyright Harmonization Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act." - The Chronicle of Higher Education, via LIS News.

The TeleRead take: Another example of the follies of the DMCA, which forbids the bypassing of copy protection schemes. Allan Adler, a lawyer for publishers, says notes that conflicts of this kind are rare and that educators can often find paper copies. Still, what about the potential of the Net for distance education? And in the end, as protection schemes become more common, will the conflicts be so rare after all?

Update: Here's another chance to speak out against the DMCA.

posted by David Rothman at 9:22 AM | permanent link

"U.S. publishers take note: The Bookseller, Britain's magazine of publishing and bookselling, reports that 'public libraries continue to suffer from dwindling book stocks and public use,' according to the Annual Library Statistics survey for 2000–01. Moreover, says The Bookseller, buying is 'tilted towards children's books' and nonbook items (mostly audio and video) and there is ' failure to attract young people [that will] lead to future problems.'" - Library Journal.

The TeleRead take: No, the situation isn't so bad in the States, but LJ correctly warns U.S. publishers that "they can't take any market for granted, even if it is as stable as the U.S. public library system, which accounts for some ten percent of book sales—and nonreturnable sales at that. The current push for child literacy and education is certainly crucial to the future of books and reading, but it may divert some funds that would have gone to purchasing adult titles or supporting adult programs to children's collections that bolster the new initiatives and state standards." Another argument for a TeleRead approach, which would distribute books far less expensively than on paper alone?

Meanwhile see a second LJ item--on the gap in the States between the demand for library services and current budgeting. No, TeleRead is not an instant replacement for all paper books, but it would help libraries get more for their money while treating publishers and writers fairly. What's more, by at least somewhat reconciling the differences beteween librarians and content providers, it might encourage them to direct more lobbying toward a bigger pie, as opposed to the slicing. Ideally the States won't end up repeating the mistakes of the U.K.; and TeleRead, with its ability to weave libraries into the fabric of the Net and otherwise reach the young, would be one way to avoid this.

posted by David Rothman at 1:01 PM | permanent link

Library Journal has a nice writeup on Jenny Levine of The Shifted Librarian. You can read her virtual bow after her appearance on LJ's "Movers and Shakers" list.

The TeleRead take: The most salient aspect of Jenny is how quickly she's been to see the potential of RSS and other technologies in a people-oriented library context. Back in '92 when I first published TeleRead, I worried about the training costs and the rest. Would the librarians keep up with the techies? Jenny, Steve Cohen and others of their generation tend not to be programmers, but more and more of them can understand exactly what the programmers need to do--which is even more important. And that's extremely meaningful in a TeleRead context, since the plan calls for local librarians to be able to endlessly customize the national collection. Which of course explains my enthusiasm for reliable archives with permanent links--not just to books but to sections within them, when possible.

Brag mode: Nothing like LJ fame, but the TeleRead blog itself was favorably reviewed on a nice little site called Webraw--for providing "a wealth of information about digital learning." Of course we're about far more than that, but what's a library, digital or Real World, if not a place to learn?
posted by David Rothman at 12:23 PM | permanent link

"Electronic books are changing the way authors and publishers do business. The digital nature of these new 'e-books' affects a number of issues in publishing contracts, including copyrights and payments. This article explains the legal issues created by e-books." - Gigalaw.com.
posted by Jerry Justianto at 5:25 AM | permanent link

"Major record labels have targeted about 300 companies whose computers were allegedly used by employees to feed file-swapping networks in the latest attempt to crack down on Internet music piracy. Letters sent out in the last week by the Recording Industry Association of America informed the companies of the alleged piracy and warned that employees and employers might be subjected to 'significant legal damages.' However, the letters made no explicit threat to sue." Wired News.
posted by Jerry Justianto at 5:23 AM | permanent link

American publishers and writers enjoy a certain cachet around the world, and one hopes that anti-war sentiment won't diminish it in the short or long term.

But what if the cachet fades eventually? Will the worst Darwinian economics kick in? Could a proposal from an Indian ghostwriter--wanting me to send clients his way--be an omen? For the moment at least, I'll assume the offer isn't a scam. It does come with a reference from a relative in Washington, DC, along with word that my correspondent has "ghost written 2 novels for a US ghost writing agency."

Here's the deal. For $2,500 he'll write a 50,000 word book and supply 500 copies of a printed paperback. Certain U.S. publishers actually persuade writers to do books for $2,500 or less, sometimes zero, albeit without the need to provide the copies for the publishers, just the usual blood. But remember, there's at least the prospect of royalties, which this man does not insist on.

So what's ahead? U.S. corporations already farm out technical support to Indians, who may even receive coaching in the right accents. In the future will the big international conglomerates conduct training courses for local Indian writers, then turn them loose on multimedia potboilers? Or will American publishers eventually find themselves elbowed aside in the world market, especially in an e-book era when physical distribution and investment in warehouses will matter less?

Hold it. Foreign conglomerates already are major players in the States--making the above scenario even more possible.

Simply put, writers and publishers in all countries, rich or poor, might fare better with a national digital library approach that developed domestic markets to the fullest and paid authors at least a little better than today's rates. "Much better," of course, would be--better.
posted by David Rothman at 1:10 PM | permanent link

"Electronic books, a new addition to the Association of American Publishers (AAP) monthly sales report, began 2003 with impressive numbers, up 1,447.4 percent, according to figures just released by the AAP. The electronic book segment grew from $211,000 in net sales in January 2002 to slightly more than $3.3 million in January 2003, a sign that consumer interest in electronic books is growing." - AAP news release.

The TeleRead take: Nice percentage rate, but, extrapolated, that's still below $40 million a year, lunch money for Bill Gates and less than Tom Clancy's 2001 income. Time for a TeleRead-style distribution system to expand the market? Of course, it's good to see the numbers available. By the way, at least one alert member of the eBbook Community list wants to know a few details, and so do I. Are the figures for sales by U.S. publishers (to readers everywhere?) or sales to States-based readers (from publishers everywhere?)? Whatever the meaning of the stats, let's hope that sales hold up amid the tragic distractions of the war. Do you think Saddam would behave himself if Random House and Simon & Schuster had an eye for the right talent? Oh, the wonders of what-if?

But wait. There's more in the AAP release, and the news isn't so great. "Declines were posted in a number of categories, including adult hardcover and paperback, children’s hardcover and paperback, and audio books. Adult hardcover sales fell 13.7 percent ($76.8 million), while paperback sales dropped 15.4 percent with sales of $81.8 million. The adult mass market category dropped 10.1 percent with sales of $57.6 million. Children’s books were hit hard in January, with hardcover down 42.3 percent ($17.4 million) and paperback down 34.6 percent ($20.1 million). Audio books also started off the year weak, falling 40.3 percent with sales of $4.5 million. It is likely that concerns about the U.S. economy and the possibility of war adversely impacted the retail book selling sector."

Pubishers, librarians, everyone, let's worry a little less about your own share of the pie and more about growing the pie, period. Even the war factor isn't all. Remember, this is when people want escapism. Most paperbacks, I suspect, are fiction, and that's down sharply. Given the steep prices of paperbacks compared to the past, I'm not surprised--especially in this slow economy. With a TeleRead-style library model, revenue just might be a little more stable if the various interests within the industry spend more time on the pie than the division of it. Meanwhile, even without a boost from TeleRead, I suspect that e-books will function in some ways as the new paperbacks, especially when the technology improves.

Remember, however--the idea shouldn't be just to boost the sales of books, but also improve their usefulness and general quality, which TeleRead would do in various ways. If nothing else, with more reliable archiving, e-books would be taken more seriously by the best writers. What's more, by allowing nonfiction books to be linked to each other internally, TeleRead would allow writers to document their facts better and spend more space on original material and less space just summing up already-published information. With technologies like wireless (so you can follow the links even if you're not hooked in with wires) and XML (allowing information to be updated more easily), some interesting possibilities emerge.
posted by David Rothman at 11:01 AM | permanent link

New research shows that only nine percent of file traders view their activity as illegal, according to a Slashdot item. "With 40 million Americans identified as active file traders this is indeed stirring information, though not surprising. Another stat: 73 percent of U.S. downloaders report that their motivation for trading was to sample music for later purchase." TeleRead, of course, could include provisions for legalized file trading within the bounds of fair use. What's more, as noted earlier, file-trading would be fine on books covered by a National Digital Lbrary Fund. Just the ticket for writers and publishers to be paid for yet more accesses.
posted by David Rothman at 10:13 AM | permanent link

TeleRead takes it for granted that governments will try to censor national digital library systems, even those with long-term funding. That's one reason we fervently support nongovernment library projects such as Project Gutenberg. If they can get government funding, as we'd like--well, then, fine. But we hope the private sector will come through, too, and be ready to step in when pressure happens.

Just the same, it isn't as if the corporate world is safe from the virtual equivalents of blue pencils.

One of the latest censorship examples involving Google--which probably has a stronger backbone than the corporate norm--comes from Seth Finkelstein. A hate group isn't showing up the usual way in the German-language results of Google. Finkelstein concludes: "Contrary to earlier utopian theories of the Internet, it takes very little effort for governments to cause certain information simply to vanish for a huge number of people." Thanks to Slashdot for this one.

Unrelated: Warts and all, Google is still a personal favorite of mine--the ultimate rebuke to those old foggies who back in the early '90s were dissin' TeleRead because search engines could not be powerful enough. And speaking still further of Google, I'm looking forward to reading Google Hacks, by Tara Calishain and Rael Dornfest. It's just been Slashdotted.
posted by David Rothman at 9:25 AM | permanent link

Hollywood says certain enemies of America are making a mint by ripping off DVDs. Perhaps Jack Valenti can ask the troops to check out Saddam's palaces. Look, I don't know about DVDs, but this guy has a history. (Found via Disenchanted.)
posted by David Rothman at 11:12 PM | permanent link

On the cusp of a probable war in Iraq, a former New York Daily News correspondent named Christopher Allbritton has returned to the region on his own to report for his uppity multi-media blog. Worth noting, no matter how you feel about the war. Is an instant e-book or a print-on-demand edition ahead if the big boys don't go for it? More via Wired. Also check out the Kevin Sites blog--he's a Net-hip CNN correspondent. Be interesting to see how many future Hemingways turn bloggage into something truly durable. Does this mean that their publishers' lawyers will ask them to take their gems off line?
posted by David Rothman at 10:32 PM | permanent link

"The infrastructure for workable DRM doesn't just involve redesigning all hardware, outlawing open source, suppressing the speech of scientists and researchers, constraining fair use and first sale: it also involves creating a secure, authenticated timekeeping mechanism." - Boing Boing Blog.

The TeleRead take: Drat. Should have mentioned that tidbit earlier from the Yale Lawmeme's report on the Digital Rights Management conference in Berkeley. Will Hollywood work out a secret deal with the feds to slow down the clock? Just joking, but with these people you never know. As if users don't have enough problems already with copware-protected programs and content.
posted by David Rothman at 8:59 PM | permanent link

The TeleBlog has a new green look in keeping with the rest of the site. Bear with us while we polish Version 2. There'll soon be more white space between columns, for example. Also, the links to older articles will be back, and the "Favorites" list will be updated. Meanwhile do you prefer the type to be this size or smaller? Feedback of any kind welcome. E-mail dr@teleread.org.
posted by David Rothman at 4:00 PM | permanent link

Kerry Dougherty, a columnist for the Virginian-Pilot, warned the other day against the perils of chaining elementary schoolers to their desks 12 months a year. True, true, true. Between SAT prep and soccer practice, can't children have some time for unstructured learning? Must the Gradgrinds always win?

Which isn't to deny the need for the basics--for example, phonics, which can lead to more enjoyable reading later on. But some balance, please.

TeleRead itself is about both structured and unstructured learning. The more books available to match the interests of young readers, the more likely they'll be to laze back on the sofa with their favorites--especially with the right encouragement from teachers, librarians or parents.

But back to Dougherty. She writes that "when I first lamented the arrival of year-round schools, some local educators accused me of Luddite thinking. They said that those lazy summers I remembered were as dated as the Hula-Hoops we played with back then.

"Today's children need a competitive edge, they scolded. They don't have a moment to waste.

"Seems to me that's exactly what kids need today. Moments to waste.

"They need a break from schedules and SOLS and organized sports.

"They need time to play, daydream and read for pleasure.

"Year-round schools are not the answer.

"Our tax dollars would be better spent on a fleet of bookmobiles."

Exactly. And e-books, too. Someday e-books will be as easy for everyone to read as regular books, complete with pages you can flip. Even now, some children actually prefer online books over the old-fashioned variety. And the holdouts? Well, there are ways to reconcile their preferences and Kerry Dougherty's own Luddite side with the promise of books online. Ms. Dougherty, care to check out a writeup from last October on the Internet Bookmobile?

posted by David Rothman at 8:03 AM | permanent link

TeleRead has always been keen on multipurpose portable machines that could be used for much more than reading. In that department, it's good to hear of the newest version of WordSmith, which one reviewer calls "the first full-fledged word processor for the Palm OS."

Not to say that there's no place for dedicated e-book machines. Sooner or later I'll be writing up the pros and cons of the eBookman, which, by the way, I picked up on eBay for all of $50.
posted by David Rothman at 12:45 PM | permanent link

Andy Oram, author of the note below, is an old friend of mine and an editor at O'Reilly & Associates. He specializes in such topics as Linux, programming and peer-to-peer networking.

Thanks to Billy Barron for talking about Safari on that Java user group web site and on Teleread. I have enough of a visionary mentality myself that I see Safari as just an early experiment in online publishing. But I also witnessed some of the immense amount of planning and work that went into making it fairly easy to use and effective, so I think it's an achievement.

Still, online reading is different from print publications, and eventually we've got to change our books to accommodate the two different media. Our reference works are best suited to Safari right now. Other books could be adapted by breaking them into smaller pieces, making the divisions between sections much cleaner, providing interactivity (how about examples you can edit and run within the browser?), throwing in more links, providing trails through different pages so you can back up and find the prerequisites you need to know, and more.

One of our big achievements (which came about after we did the preliminary design for the site and realized we had something successful that might appeal to other companies) is to get multiple companies to combine their material on one site. That's a scary step for companies to take--their text competes directly with that from other publishers. It's not as universal as Teleread, but it's taking the right steps.

I talk about Safari as an experiment, but to be a successful experiment it will have to become more than an experiment. That is, it will have to earn money--and in the past year, amazingly, I've been told that is is turning a small profit. It won't go away; it will get bigger and better.

As for selection, remember that this is a new initiative and that companies are just experimenting with what should go up--as well as logistically how to get it up. Preparing text for online viewing takes time, at this stage in publishing. I assure you that all the companies involved in Safari are getting their books up there as fast as they can. The selection reflects initial triage.

Feel free to post this. It is my personal opinion, not an official statement from O'Reilly.

posted by David Rothman at 12:20 PM | permanent link

The answer is ChillingEffects.org. Well, at least you can type to them. Memo to Brewster Kahle at Archive.org: Put that URL in your browser, especially if you want to resist the Scientologists more than you did earlier, which, reportedly, was not at all. Come to think of it, maybe even some federal agencies could use the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse.
posted by David Rothman at 5:05 AM | permanent link

A lesson for librarians and publishers? Think of the whole picture, including the Palladium project.
posted by David Rothman at 1:42 PM | permanent link

TeleRead is in favor of as many books as possible being online for free to the public, in the Carnegie vein. Still, we've also mentioned subscription-based models, a possibility that even showed up in the first published article on TeleRead.

Now O'Reilly, one of our favorite publishers, has launched a new subscription experiment with Safari Online Bookshelf. Billy Barron, who was interested in TeleRead as far back as 1993, sees some overlaps even though Safari is commercial. Recently he reviewed the O'Reilly plan, and his words appear below.

While O'Reilly is a computer book publisher, we can envision a similar approach working particularly well for publishers in other niches such as romance novels even though the $14.99-a-month price might have to be somewhat lower. Such an endeavor could open up some interesting possibilities, especially if many publishing houses and perhaps other content providers were involved.

A TeleRead substitute? Hardly. The TeleRead plan is more integrated, both internally and externally. It calls, for example, for fixed links and a Webbish ability of writers and publishers to link directly to sections of other people's works, at least when permission is given (either generically or in a particular case). Also, it would allow local libraries an outstanding amount of freedom to customize access to the national collection and contribute to its development. TeleRead, too, would tie in closely with schools, which, by the way, isn't the worst way to hook the young on books.

Still, even with a less innovative and ambitious vision, a giant industrywide subscription plan would be a start--whether or not it was limited to particular genres. If publishers were sensible, they would collaborate closely with librarians and the Internet Archive. As a matter of fact, Brewster Kahle, archive cofounder, told a library gathering that a number of publishers are interested in working with him on business-model development. What a great chance to try out the models in real life for libraries and direct consumers alike, as opposed to the courts--perhaps using older titles and low-advance books at the start, where the stakes aren't so high. Maybe the project also could build partly on the expertise of, say, NetLibrary, which, though a valuable service, is far less comprehensive and usable than TeleRead would be. NetLibrary is part of OPAC and already has connections to real-life local libraries. And who knows? If the big players surprised us and allowed the inclusion of such advanced features as external linking to sections of books, at least as an option, then so much the better.

Meanwhile, as promised, here's the Barron review of Safari.

* * *

Safari Online Bookshelf
By Billy Barron
billy@metronet.com

O'Reilly and Associates offers an online book service called Safari Bookshelf, an interesting idea. Rather than buying paper books in the stores, you can access them online.

Safari contains more than 1,000 computer titles, though it should be pointed out that I noticed that they sometimes have more than one edition of the same book. The selection is not just O'Reilly. Pearson, which owns most of the other major computer publishing brands, is also represented. Only 75 percent of O'Reilly's titles are on the site due to problems related to different books being published in different technologies.

The way the site works is that when you get an account, you get a bookshelf with a number of slots (usually ten). Most books take up one slot, but some take more. To view the contents of a book, you have to move the book into one of your slots. Once in a slot, the book has to stay there for a month before you can remove it.

There is also a search function that lets you search all the books on the site. You will only be able to view one paragraph from the book based on the search. Then to see more of the book, you have to add the book to your bookshelf.

The cost for 10 slots is $14.99/month. There is pricing for additional slots and group pricing for corporations.

The Review

The site is easy enough to use. It only took me about 5 minutes to figure out how it completely worked.

I did find a minor bug where a book on my bookshelf didn't show up on one page but did on another one. When I came back to the a couple of days later, the problem seemed to have gone anyway. Besides that, the site has worked well.

During the period I was reviewing, I had two unusual book needs arise. The first was I needed to learn AS/400. I searched the site and found no titles available. Then I needed to get up to speed on RACF on the Mainframe. Found nothing on RACF and nothing on the mainframe. I thought next I would try PeopleSoft and SAP because I will need to know more about them soon. Not much help there.

The site is stocked full of Unix, Java, Windows, C and other common topics. The conclusion I have to draw from this is that if you are looking books on the regular old common topics, you will find it on Safari. On the other hand, if you need the esoteric book, you will be out of luck most likely.

I was initially concerned about filling up my 10 slots and then needing a critical book later and not finding a spot for it. I have tended to underuse the site due to this. Now after a month, I have realized that I should be more aggressive about using slots and that 10 slots is probably enough for my needs.

My overall feelings about the site is that it can be a good value if you use it properly and are in need of books on the most common topics. It is a goldmine for the entry level programmer as they can get access to a huge number of books at a low cost.

(Reproduced by permission from the Web site of the Java Metroplex User's Group in Dallas/Ft. Worth.)

Additional thoughts: Wonder how the O'Reilly plan addresses fair use at home and among friends. Under TeleRead, books paid for by a National Digital Library Fund could be freely shared, at least in the States, and it would even be to the advantage of content-providers to see them spread far and wide among TeleRead users, with new revenue coming from each access or new reader.

How about books not covered by the Fund? Perhaps there could be provisions for free sharing within the same household and among different devices owned by the same user.

The possibility also exists of book-locker arrangements allowing a reasonable number of friends or business associates to share, with a different price for the privilege--or else friends could read the book for free for a limited time. These concepts that have been mentioned by others in different contexts.

As for readers overseas, they might be able to access TeleRead books through individual purchases, personal subscription plans or the purchases of their own national digital library systems, which could have similar provisions for sharing.

However TeleRead handles sharing and the related issues of Digital Rights Management and foreign pick-ups, it is important that the plan avoid the serious restrictions that the music industry and a certain large software company in Redmond, Washington, have imposed on users.

One thing for the publishers to keep in mind is that today's readers like to graze rather than commit themselves immediatately to a full purchase. That's one of the glories of a subscription model and some provisions for file sharing--since less commitment is necessary to individual titles from the start.

Another thing to keep in mind is that, with the distractions of the Net, many readers are spending less time with books.

Simply put, publishers should worry less about the nuances of copyright law and more about survival of my favorite medium. $20 e-books won't cut it. - DR

posted by David Rothman at 11:41 AM | permanent link

Yale University's LawMeme reported from a Berkeley copyright conference on digital rights management. A lawyer for the main trade group of publishers offered some rather clueful remarks--totally in character with a conversation I had with him some years ago. The LawMeme summary:

"Allan Adler, from the American Association of Publishers, on the third hand, is more willing to say that we don’t yet have a good idea what the right compromise will look like (even though his faith that such a compromise exists, is, of course, unshaken). Part of this willingness is professional frustration: the publishing industry is, apparently, still smarting from its first experiments with e-books. From Adler’s perspective, that first generation of DRM wasn’t well-tailored to the publishing industry; he’s not the only speaker who wonders why everyone’s favorite DRM test case is invariably music."

I'm less upbeat when he goes on, as paraphrased: "More to the point, consumers haven’t yet accepted that they’ll need to give up certain traditional freedoms if they want to get the increased power of e-books in return. Consumers love the search and annotation features, but they haven’t been willing to ante up yet."

Still, Adler comes across as infinitely more reasonable than AAP's Pat Schroeder, who, in a Washington Post interview, once depicted librarians as the enemy. Years ago Adler made it abundantly clear to me that business models should matter less than whether money can be made. Exactly! In that statement lie the seeds of the compromise that he says he would like to happen.

posted by David Rothman at 3:12 AM | permanent link

I can't resist sharing my joy over the signing of the new law against unwanted calls from telemarketers, who, if nothing else, distract from reading a good book in any format, p or e. The calls never stop from some hucksters for U.S. News & World Report even though I'm subscribed several years in advance. The big do-not-call list isn't operational yet--but I've already told one USN&WR telemarketer that his future is limited, and that he'd better go on the Web now and see for himself. My mistake. I should have offered to email the facts, which he could then circulate in a massive way among his colleagues. Now that kind of spam would actually be useful. Memo to Mort Zuckerman: Hey, I want USN&WR to survive. Your hiring these pushy hucksters won't help.

(Link spotted via JD's New Media Musings.)
posted by David Rothman at 2:46 AM | permanent link

"Two former executives at television programming guide publisher Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc. agreed to provide testimony to the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of a probe into the company's financial disclosures, the SEC said on Wednesday." - Reuters, March 12.

The TeleRead take: Kind of amusing, no? Within the e-book area, Gemstar's paranoia about piracy has harmed sales of its products. Now, if the SEC suspicions pan out, it just may be that the biggest pirates were in-house--at Gemstar. And Gemstar folks think they're the ones to trust with our cultural heritage?

Meanwhile, it looks as if some of the more rapacious of the ex-AOLers are getting in deeper and deeper trouble. Their legacy lingers even if the old Time Warner crowd controls the company again. Coincidentally or not, AOL wants to sell the book division. That's great if you're worried about the power of monopolies, as we are, but it's unfortunate for writers and editors, who generally do better when things are more stable.
posted by David Rothman at 1:57 AM | permanent link

"Without schools, roads, basic scientific research, defense, public health programs, police and other public safety measures, economies do not thrive." - Steven Perlstein, Washington Post.

The TeleRead take: And libraries, too, maybe? Including perhaps eventually the online variety? Imagine if just a fraction of the money lavished on Amazon.com stock had gone for a prototype of a TeleRead-style library.
posted by David Rothman at 1:17 PM | permanent link

"Based on the recommendation of its patent office and following fierce lobbying by VG Wort, an association of German composers, authors and publishers, Germany is poised to enforce a 3-year-old law and impose a copyright levy of $13 plus 16 percent in value added tax per new computer sold in the country. The money will be used to reimburse copyright holders--artists, performers, recording companies, publishers and movie studios--for unauthorized copying thought to weigh adversely on sales." - Sam Vaknin, UPI, March 12.

The TeleRead take: Obviously the spirit of Jack Valenti is alive and well in Europe. Oh, and by the logic of the tax, every computer owner is guilty.

posted by David Rothman at 1:10 PM | permanent link

Off topic but still interesting article from Hiawatha Bray in the Boston Globe today...

"Local software legend Mitch Kapor won't confirm or deny a published report that he quit the board of Beverly-based Groove Networks Inc. because of its involvement in a program that could help the federal government analyze personal information about millions of Americans. "

And then, lower down:

"But Kapor's main focus is on his Open Source Applications Foundation, a nonprofit group that seeks to make high-quality free software to run on a variety of computing platforms. The foundation's current project, called Chandler, is an e-mail and calendar program comparable to Microsoft's popular Outlook program. But while Outlook runs only on computers using Microsoft's Windows operating system, Chandler will be compatible with Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh and the Linux operating system as well as Windows. Kapor said that an early version of Chandler would be released next month, with improved versions released every month or two."
posted by David Rothman at 9:34 AM | permanent link

Hilary Rosen will leave her lobbying job for the recording studios, but ex-LBJ aide Jack Valenti goes on as Hollywood Lobbyist #1. From the March 8 Washington Post, belatedly--on a possible successor: "Such speculation resurfaced over the past month, this time featuring Rep. W.J. 'Billy' Tauzin (R-La.), head of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Tauzin said he has not talked to Valenti about the job, but Valenti said yesterday, 'If I had a short list of names, and I don't have a short list, he'd be on it.'"

Idea: What if a librarian's job paid $1 million a year, which is what Valenti receives to fight consumer interests in the copyright area? Imagine the positive effect that this new career path for Congress members could have on copyright legislation. Hey, as long as ALA wants higher pay for librarians, here's one more angle to use.
posted by David Rothman at 6:10 AM | permanent link

One of the big arguments for TeleRead is the ability of readers to share e-books and store them locally, rather than risking the rent-a-book future or other outrages that some big conglomerates would dearly love to inflict on the rest of us. Now, from TV, comes a good illustration of the risks. AOL Time Warner is developing its own answer to TiVO, with the capability to control goodies such as time-shifting. The real threat, of course, isn't the existence of the product, but whether AOL will buy out the independent competition or use an army of lobbyists to weaken the independents through oppressive federal regulations.
posted by David Rothman at 3:12 AM | permanent link

Digital Learning Interactive has shut down, stranding professors and students, according to Internet.com.

The TeleRead take: Another reason for the library model--or at least for better procedures to handle situations like this.

(Item found via TechDirt.)
posted by David Rothman at 4:35 AM | permanent link

"Containing cholesteric liquid crystals, a material that is inherently stable in the absence of an electric field, Ch-LCDs can continue to display pictures even after power is turned off and are relatively energy saving. Two size-AA batteries used in a non-interactive e-book with a 6-inch Ch-LCD display will last one week, 10 times as long as in a similar device with a TFT LCD display, according to Megamedia. Furthermore, black-and-white Ch-LCDs, a reflective type of display and can show images of close to paper quality, require no backlight modules and thus are thinner, lighter and cheaper." - DigiTimes.com, March 4 on cholesteric displays.

The TeleRead take: They'll be available from Megamedia in 3.8, 6.4, 7 and 7.5-inch versions. Looks as if the techies are demolishing the anti-ebook argument that you can't read the damn things. Display Research has more on Ch-LCDs.
posted by David Rothman at 2:40 PM | permanent link

"Theft of e-books is unlikely to become a major form of economic theft in the way that downloading of music did, but e-books do illustrate that the scope of intellectual property theft is expanding." - IT Director.com, March 4.

The TeleRead take: The article also says: "Any library or academic institution stocking or maintaining collections of e-books needs to take steps to minimise such theft. This may be done in a number of ways; paying fees to publishing houses and permitting downloading of books; charging fees to borrow e-books, etc." Hmmm. "Any library or academic institution"? Why not a whole system to license content and buy in bulk? That's what TeleRead is about.
posted by David Rothman at 2:29 PM | permanent link

"Attendance is up. Detentions are down. Just six months after Maine began a controversial program to provide laptop computers to every seventh grader in the state, educators are impressed by how quickly students and teachers have adapted to laptop technology." - Laptops Win Over the Skeptics, Even in Maine, New York Times, March 5.

The TeleRead take: I'm hardly surprised to hear that the benefits are more than academic. When I researched my book NetWorld in the mid 90s, some Canadian teachers were noticing the same effect--when they went out of their way to get troubled teenagers on the Net with desktops. Of course you can't separate the academic issues from the disciplinary ones.

As in the past, I believe that tablet-style machines with detachable keyboards would be better ergonomically than laptops--at least from an e-book perspective. But in the grand scheme of things, that's a detail. The main thing, pun intended, is that schools are reaping a dramatic reward from entrusting students with technology.

TeleRead, anyone? Especially since one of TeleRead's goals is to drive down the cost of the hardware through mass purchases? Students would be more easily able to buy the machine they used--or find an affordable model on the shelf at Wal-Mart. As it stands, Maine kids apparently don't get to keep their machines.
posted by David Rothman at 6:06 AM | permanent link

A student at San Jose State University is doing a thesis on that topic and many related matters. Write Debbie Dvornik at dvorniks@pacbell.net, and if you can cc: dr@teleread.org, so much the better. TeleRead remains interested in this question and looks forward to the results of her research.

Meanwhile Project Gutenberg is rolling along, with 3,333+ titles digitized in the last 18 months. Check out the Feb. 12 newsletter for more details.

Time for Oprah's new book club on the classics to make the Gutenberg connection? I think so.
posted by David Rothman at 10:22 PM | permanent link

A Canadian writer noticed something missing on events calendars--"Read an eBook Week"--an endeavor that TeleRead wholeheartedly supports. Here's the word directly from Rita Toews.

E-book authors and promoters are well acquainted with the frustrations of promoting electronic books. Soon after my first e-book was published, it became painfully apparent that to change the reading habits of generations who grew up with paper books would be an enormous task; a task that would require a united front from all e-book authors. Read An eBook Week was born.

Read an eBook Week is registered with Chase's Calendar of Events, a day-by-day directory of special days, weeks and months used by event planners or anyone looking for a reason to celebrate. By having the week officially recognized, e-book promoters acquire a legitimacy they didn't have before.

I would like to challenge e-book authors and promoters everywhere to take advantage of this week. It opens doors that were previously closed. By working as a united front we will be able to reach people who have never heard of e-books.

Plan on approaching your local media outlets during the week of March 9th to 15th. Perhaps your city has a morning television talk show, or radio show that you could appear on as a guest. Each contact we make is a potential convert to electronic literature.

Rita Y. Toews is the co-author of two award winning e-books: Prometheus and The Price of Freedom. She is also the author of two children's e-books, Kelly's Baby Brother and Christmas Stars.

* * *

With an eBook Week peg, Zorba Press has done a handy little guide to e-books. You can even get it in .pdf format to print out and mail to editors and producers.
posted by David Rothman at 9:29 PM | permanent link