Could the Palm e-book people pick up the pieces from Gemstar's dying e-book unit? That's the suggestion that "one executive"--no more details given about his or her identity--makes as paraphrased by the current email from Publishers Lunch. The newsletter says:

In the meantime, while the community waits for news of the long-term plan for taking care of Gemstar's existing customer base, companies that handle electronic file conversions tell us that publishers have been suspending new conversions into the Gemstar format.

Amusing--how so many of the SlashDot messages unwittingly proved Jon Noring's points. Many of the format chauvinists forgot the concerns of most book-lovers, who care more about convenience and functionality and other boring stuff than about technological purity. Nongeek readers are like railroad passengers. They'd rather not have to change trains to accommodate different track widths.

Thank goodness that the gauge chauvinists of the 19th century didn't prevail in the railroad world. Check out A history of track gauge, a Trains Magazine article by George W. Wilson, a UCLA history professor and author of "American Narrow Gauge Railroads," which the magazine calls "the definitive history of the subject." He writes:

The editor of the principal railroad trade journal of the 19th century, Matthias Nace Forney of The Railroad Gazette, in the course of his opposition to the narrow-gauge movement in the 1870's, reported that railroad engineers with whom he had discussed the question had responded, in general, that 4 feet, 8-1/2 inches was slightly suboptimal, and that something around 5 feet 0 would have been better. Forney agreed, but felt that homogeneity for free-running of equipment nationwide at 4 feet 8-1/2 was more important than any gains that could be gotten by an effort at change.

No doubt modern engineering techniques could be used to identify an optimal gauge, but short of an impressive demonstration to the contrary, Forney's view of the 1870's remains the most valid judgment.

Jon Noring, moderator of the eBook Community list and an invited expert for the Open eBook Forum, pointed his list members to a section of The Battle to Define the Future of Books in a Digital World, a two-year-old paper by Clifford Lynch, director of of the Coalition for Networked Information. In fact, the whole paper is worth reading, especially for its distinction between books and music. An excerpt:

I've tried to explain how developments in the music industry, which indeed serves as a canary in some senses, may be influencing the thinking of the publishing industry about its relationship with e-book readers. I believe that these influences are real. But I also believe that music is the wrong place to frame the public policy debate.

Music is ephemeral. It is widely viewed as entertainment. At some very real level, our society doesn't consider it to be important in the way that books are important. Books carry big ideas; they document history, politics, and intellectual currents. Books are dangerous; they cause wars, and governments over the years have banned, confiscated, and censored them. People die for writing books and for believing what is written in books. Books convey and illuminate religion and science. Our laws and the actions of our institutions are codified in books, or at least texts. Books are serious. Suggestions that government or commercial interests might control what we can read imply that they might also control what we can know and what we can think in a way that control over music could never achieve. Books represent our intellectual and cultural heritage. Censorship of books is a profound matter that implies censorship of ideas; censorship of music does not carry the same implications, for most people. The freedom of the written and spoken word is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and protected by courts and laws; this has been extended to other forms of communication, but it begins with words and texts. Restrictions on the sharing of books are tantamount to restrictions on the sharing of ideas. This is why libraries are so important to our society; it is one of the reasons we fund and honor them. The preservation of our books and other texts forms the core of the preservation of our intellectual record.

Obvious, no? E-books cost too much, or at least those from large publishers tend to. Instead of insisting on oppressive DRM schemes, publishers should simply show their customers a little respect--and lower prices to the point where piracy isn't a problem. Now, from Malaysia, comes word that the government is actually urging a boycott of higher-priced CDs. Along the way an official says:

There are some new local movie releases that are priced at MYR10 ($2.64). The VCDs are affordable and not bootlegged by illegal manufacturers. Those priced at MYR30 ($7.91) and above are normally the ones that get pirated. This proves that the price factor is the main reason why consumers buy pirated CDs and VCDs.

Palm's buyout of Handspring, via a stock-swap, will supposedly save the two companies $25 million a year. So what does the deal suggest? A stronger Palm? Or fear that a software crisis could be ahead--meaning that Palm needs to buy up more brains and market share to gird for the worst? Here's hoping for the best.

Maybe the extra resources and people, including the returned Donna Dubinsky and Jeff Hawkins, will make a difference. Good luck, Palm. More details from Reuters, which quotes an analyst as saying the stock-swap will help Palm in the telecom/wireless area.

Perhaps, with new distractions, the deal will lead to a more laid-back 'tude in the e-book-format wars. Or, conversely, maybe confidence from the buyout, which helped Palm's stock price, will mean a harder stance.

A little context about the overall deal--via Reuters:

The deal comes against the backdrop of dwindling demand for handheld devices. Both companies posted losses in the latest quarter and are projecting mounting losses in the current quarter.

Global shipments of handheld devices fell 21 percent in the first quarter, according to research firm International Data Corp., reflecting the decline in technology spending by corporations.

Gemstar-TV Guide will most likely kill off its e-book unit, according to a Bloomberg story picked up by the LA Times. (The URL is iffy. You may have to go to the home page of the LA Times site and do a search under Gemstar.)

Here are a few more details from Bloomberg, via the Times--quoting Gemstar-TV Guide CEO Jeff Shell:

Closing the division is the "most likely" choice that Gemstar will make after it tries to sell the business or find partners for it, Shell said at an investor conference in New York. Gemstar has hired investment bankers for advice and probably will make a decision in the next couple weeks, he added.

USA Today broke with the pack and actually noted that "e-books are alive and getting a new sales pitch"--notaby from Adobe and BookExpo America (via the Open eBook Forum).

The story played up Adobe 6.0, but, gasp, now that a reporter somewhere isn't writing off e-books for dead, maybe the press will care about the proprietary-format issue.

While e-books are alive, they could be much "aliver" with a universal format at the consumer level.

In fact, reporter Jeff Davis does give the issue a quick mention:

Rough Guide managing director Kevin Fitzgerald says he puts out 20 e-book travel guides and plans to expand to 40 within two years.

"For e-books to really take off, we need one unique portable platform, more people need to own the devices, and they need to be integrated with phone systems. When that happens, the quality of content will improve."

"When I was born in 1921, the United States was the most literate country in the world. Official calculations now place us at 45th, well behind Iraq and next to the last of the advanced countries." - Richard C. Wade, professor emeritus at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and former chairman of the Governor's Commission on Libraries, in a Newsday column.

The TeleRead take: If true--and I have some doubts about the Iraq comparison, which I'll discuss at the end of this post--Wade's statement is one more reason for a well-stocked national digital library system. TeleRead could spread around appropriate hardware, software and content for K-12 and also for adult illiterates, who could benefit from sophisticated multimedia drills. The need is there, even if Wade happens to be wildly off on his numbers. From Wade's column in Newsday:

We are already paying a steep price for denying the extent of adult illiteracy. We have an acute shortage of modern professionally schooled doctors, nurses, scientists, engineers and, it is hard to believe, teachers. Our corroded educational system and extraordinarily high level of adult illiteracy has led to an ever-increasing dependence on importing high-tech skills to replace our increasingly antiquated American work force. There was a time when we exported professionals around the world, especially to developing countries. A world power that cannot now produce the modem components of this new high technology century will not long enjoy its hegemony...

Of all our national imperatives, helping adults enter the literate world is not only essential but the most cost-effective remedy. It costs $2,000 and two years to teach an adult who wants to read and write. It costs $12,000 per year to put an adult on unemployment insurance, $14,000 per year for an adult on welfare and $50,000 in prison.

For a clue of what a good national digital library system could provide, check out a New York Times clip on the Webbed rebirth of the Brooklyn Eagle, courtesy the Brooklyn Public Library.

Imagine if libraries routinely preserved all major digital editions of local newspapers. Even if the material weren't available for the public's immediate use via the library system, at least it would be there for the future. From the Times, here's an example of the possibilities:

Enthusiasts have already tapped into the site. Joe Fodor, a senior editor for the defunct Brooklyn Bridge magazine who gives tours of the Cemetery of the Evergreens in East New York, said that in just 15 minutes he came across a dozen new stories about people buried there, including a song about one of them...

Tim O'Reilly, the publisher, warns of the risks of copy-protection zealotry. Time for certain members of the Open eBook Forum and the publishing world to listen?

"Copy protection is over-blown," he added, asserting that the overwhelming majority of published works sell in insignificant numbers. "A few thousand books have measurable sales," said O'Reilly, who describes piracy as a "progressive tax" on the already well-off. His solution, in many though not all circumstances, is to offer content for free via the Web whenever possible. "A few well-known artists are affected by piracy," he said, "but the vast majority of artists would love to be known well enough to be a target of pirates. The biggest danger to an artist isn't piracy, it's not being noticed."

Shoplifting, claims O'Reilly, is a greater danger in the age of computerized inventory controls than digital piracy. "If a store has one copy of my book and it's stolen, the computer will say the book isn't selling and it may never be reordered. Organized piracy is real, but there are already legal mechanisms to deal with it," he said.