"Nelson Bibles is developing a King James Version Bible for the Tablet PC market. With more than 300,000 Tablet PCs in the PDA industry and market projects of 150 percent growth by the end of next year, Nelson Bibles--a division of Nashville-based publisher Thomas Nelson Inc.--is hoping to garner a niche with its digitized Bible that can be downloaded from the Internet." - Nashville Business Journal.

The TeleRead take: Very possibly the pious will also explore e-book titles beyond the Bible. One way or another, this is a boost for the Tablet PC, which, given sales far under expectations, could badly use it. An assocation with e-books can only help.

Assisting Nelson is Zoe Technologies. A press release on the Zoe site quotes Nelson president Michael Hyatt: "Our software will allow users to interact with the Bible in much the same way that they interact with their leather bound version at home–taking notes in the margins, underlying key words and passages–while at the same time offering a comprehensive interactive experience with quick referencing, indexing and search capabilities."

Detail: Is this a flavor of Microsoft Reader or entirely new software? I don't know. On other matter, it's amusing to see the description of the Tablet PC as a PDA.
posted by David Rothman at 3:40 PM | permanent link

"Haters are gonna hate, but despite yesterday’s quasi-denial, CNET reports that palmOne has in fact been testing other operating systems for their handhelds and smartphones, including Microsoft’s Windows Mobile software and customized version of Linux. It doesn’t mean that those rumors that palmOne was prepping a Windows Mobile-based Treo are necessarily true…sometimes testing is just testing." - engadget.com, Nov. 4.

The TeleRead take: If Linux happens on the PalmOne, that could be good news for OpenReader. While vendors should watch out for the owners of antique hardware, which OpenReader itself could do through conversion, it is high time to move on to new technology--and new ways of thinking. The older Palm operating systems, at least, could not do justice to a next-generation reader like OpenReader. Then there's the issue of proprietary vs. nonproprietary. In the area of e-reading formats, especially, the proprietary approach is a dead end--given the need for readers to be able to access their books long term without worrying so much about the whims of individual companies.
posted by David Rothman at 9:07 AM | permanent link

"No surprise here, but apparently the MPAA has learned absolutely nothing from the RIAA. After quite a bit of talk, the MPAA has decided to sue about 200 people for offering movies on file sharing networks. I'm sure it will work out just as well as in the recording industry, where file sharing is up these days and shows no sign of slowing down." - Techdirt.

The TeleRead take: E-bookers could learn from the mistakes of both the RIAA and the MPAA. In terms of negative PR risks, e-book-related suits could be worse than for products associated purely with entertainment. How long until the first suit is filed for P2P sharing of a classic novel still under copyright?
posted by David Rothman at 8:36 AM | permanent link

Fictionwise will soon sell rebranded Rocket eBook-style devices, then move on to newer technology.

"This is not a dead end," Steve Pendergrast told a Fictionwise email list, "it's a revival of the entire technology." Yes! Imagine--a dedicated e-book device, coming along just when small-screened cell phones were pushing aside PDAs. Way to go, Fictionwise!

Details

--The devices will at first be "re-branded 1150s," Gemstar devices.

--Price will be $99, including "a $20 store credit for any content you want. We will also be able to migrate 1150, 1200, and 2150 class Gemstar and RCA devices to take content from a new store we will be launching just for this purpose, and we have agreements with major publishers to provide new content for these devices."

--Although offering content in a proprietary format, Fictionwise will also offer users the ability to use their own content--either on launch or soon thereafter.

This hardware revival is is great news for the orphaned owners of the machines, both those who like Gutenberg-style books and those partial to commercial titles from large publishers.

OpenReader angle

So what's the OpenReader angle? Well, just as with the older Palms, it should be possible to convert content in one way or another, as long as the appropriate people help. In the long run, just as the Net surprassed CompuServe, Prodigy and the like, so will an open format prevail over proprietary alternatives.

Fictionwise is a pretty savvy outfit, and one hopes that it will join some rather important e-bookers in support of OpenReader, which will reduce costs for publishers, retailers and, yes, readers. Who wants to pay software companies to reinvent the basic formats and the DRM again and again? Better to have a consortium and compete over features meaningful to writers, pubishers and human readers, such as content-creation tools and easy interfaces in software readers.

Jon Noring and I and others associated with Open Reader hope that Fictionwise will be open to the above. Fictionwise could even simultaneously offer its own format and OpenReader and let the marketplace decide.
posted by David Rothman at 1:05 PM | permanent link

From the new Librie Wiki:

The Sony Librié EBR-1000EP is an ebook with a promising new display technology rendered almost unusable by DRM (digital restriction management).

This Wiki serves as a platform to document the Librie's BBeB file format and other features of the device.
posted by David Rothman at 6:53 AM | permanent link

Would John Kerry and John Edwards have won if they had taken a gutsy, populist stand on copyright? Consider:

--"Today, more US citizens use file-sharing software than voted for President Bush" in 2000, according to Fred von Lohmann, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

--Ohio, perhaps the decisive state in the 2004 election, is exactly the kind of place where pro-school, pro-library arguments against the copyright elite might have flown.

--The DMCA still threatens to be a monopolist's friend and could jack up the price of goods and services if court decisions go the wrong way. You're GM and don't want small guys to work on your heavily computerized cars? Encrypt, encrypt, encrypt, argue it's necessary, and use the DMCA's anti-circumvention provision.

--The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act--yes, Sonny Bono Act, not the JFK Act--was and is a systematic transfer of future wealth from society at large to an entertainment elite. Bill Clinton signed it. But a Republican Congress passed it, and clueful Democrats could have said, "Look, we're the party that admits its mistake and lives for the future."

I know: The Dems relied on Hollywood money to pay for much of their advertising. But I doubt that the liberal studio bosses could have brought themselves to support Bush, whose claimed values clashed so directly with theirs. A less tainted Democratic party would have worried less about kowtowing to Hollywood elitists and more about looking for support elsewhere.

Simply put, while copyright could never have been among the most important issues, nothing compared to Iraq or the economy, it might have made a difference in such a hard-fought, narrowly decided election. One frustration is that Kerry actually may have been on the verge of doing the right thing in regard to some intellectual matters. Imagine if he had acted for real, all the way, and in time.

Detail: TeleRead itself is nonpartisan, with some Republicans among its most ardent supporters and no shortage of complaints in this blog against Democratic copyright sleaze. I myself am a lifelong liberal Democrat. I'd love for the headline of this post to be wrong and for Kerry to emerge victorious in the best Truman tradition, but, even after possible court fights, the end results will most likely go against the Democrats. To reach the White House, Kerry would have to win too high a percentage of the contested votes.

Beyond copyright: This eventually could well be the '60s and '70s redux, given the intense hatred of Bush among action-minded kooks, not just the tweedy set. Will we see assassination attempts from Squeaky Frome-style imbeciles and domestic terrorism even without the threat from Osama? I hope not. If it happens, then the Patriot Act could be mild compared to what follows. Should the economy worsen in a serious way, we could also see urban riots. What's more, while the military might hate it, Bush's foreign adventures could leave no other choice, and we could witness a return to the draft and the resultant radicalization of some young people. Bush's hard-line abortion stand, and the resultant selection of Supreme Court justices, also will inflame many. Oh, and I haven't even mentioned the ballooning deficits. Maybe black-suited investment bankers and other harmed by Bushnomics will man the protests marches along with the draft protestors and abortion rights advocates (hyperbole alert). Wait: there's more. Perhaps Bush can make the U.S. even more Republican by letting global warming raise sea levels and do away with Manhattan, thereby ridding us of some bothersome members of the liberal media as well.

More on the overseas angle: Would that this headline have applied to a real-life election: John Kerry storms to victory in virtual vote. It did not because the "virtual vote" included "more than 113,000 people from 119 countries." Not surprisingly, they voted 77 percent for Kerry. Bush does not care as much as Kerry would have about popularity overseas. Osama types may well take note of this and feel more eager than ever to commit yet another 9/11--with repeat efforts against New York, Washington, or both.

Related: Declaring Victory in Dan Gillmor's blog. Quote of the hour: "We will not recognize America in four more years. That will make half of America giddy. It will terrify the other half."
posted by David Rothman at 2:34 AM | permanent link

"A supplemental history book set to be published this winter will not only cover the war in Iraq, but the outcome of November's presidential election. By next year, teachers will be able to purchase and download specific exercises in the form of an 'e-book,' tailoring information to one class, or even one student." - Maine Today, via eBookAd.
posted by David Rothman at 2:14 AM | permanent link

From Rohit Gupta in Bombay--referring to an item I picked up from eBookCulture:

I read the post on Needed: Something 'extra' in e-books. And this is why I'm responding to you. I'm a big fan of Creative Commons, and I think I've devised an original way of publishing a novel that is possible only now due to new technologies and CC. The title of my blognovel is:

LE SPIRALE FANTASTIQUE

If you like a sentence from this novel, tell me about it. I will link that sentence to your blog or website, and you use that quote as a link to my novel on your site. It's a gift-exchange system, and that simple. After this, you own that quote. I own nothing, and nothing owns me.

/////////////////

The TeleRead take: I edited Rohit's note for brevity. While at first glance some would dismiss the blognovel project as a mere link-generating scheme, I believe that Rohit is sincere, the reason I'm reproducing his letter. Good luck to him. Meanwhile see comments from Minding the Planet.
posted by David Rothman at 1:03 AM | permanent link

"It's great, it's cool, they even have a couple of our titles," Michael Ward of Hidden Knowledge has said in an eBook Community List post about the new OverDrive-powered section at the New York Public Library's Web site. "Now if only we could get paid for them."

Let's hope that OverDrive will treat its library clients better than the small publishers toward which it has been a deadbeat. That little detail aside, OverDrive and the New York Public Library are off to a nice start with a colorful, polished and informative home page for e-book readers, as well as a guidance for newbies. Let's hope that clumsy DRM and the format wars don't get in the way. NYPL, like other OverDrive clients, uses a mix of Adobe and Mobipocket. On handhelds, Mobipocket is the best-looking of the major commercial e-book formats.

Detail: The OverDrive collection for the NYPL includes classics that the NYPL could have picked up for free. In fairness to the NYPL, most free versions of public domain books are not presented with the same aesthetics that many commercial editions are. You normally don't get well-done covers of the kind that the NYPL would love to display, for instance. On the positive side, this is an example of how the availability of a work in the public domain does not automatically destroy the commercial market for it. Hidden Knowledge adds genuine value to such oldies as the works of Rafael Sabatini and The Memoirs of General William T. Sherman.

Related: OverDrive Audio Books Platform Released (OverDrive news release) and more details on the OverDrive-NYPL arrangement via EContent.

Additional OverDrive-related comments emailed us by Hidden Knowledge's Michael Ward: "I'd certainly like to put in a good word for Overdrive and all the things they've done right. Steve Potash is a true leader in the field, and I hope the company succeeds."

HK's treatment of PD books: "Our Outlaws of Falkensteig is just what you asked for: a book of uncollected, unavailable, out-of-print stories, with a new intro by Jesse F. Knight, an authority in the field of Sabatini studies. We plan to do two more of these, publishing further uncollected stories by Sabatini, with introductions. We do the scanning, conversions, and formatting for these new collections. We also provide free hosting for RafaelSabatini.com, with minimal ad links, as a gathering ground for Sabatini fans.

"Covers for PD books are a major point with us. Gutenberg doesn't need them, but everyone else does. We agonize over them, and I think ours are among the best in the business. Check out the ones for Magnificat, Strange Seas, the other Yarbro titles, to see what I mean. The original source for the (much modified) picture of Elsinore on Alas, Poor Yorick was a 1902 photo by Burton Holmes, from his travelogue brochure."
posted by David Rothman at 2:59 AM | permanent link

"Computer users of the world have united behind Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig--and what they're doing is much more important than his critics realize." - Summary of Dan Hunter's article Marxist-Lessigism in Legal Affairs.
posted by David Rothman at 1:28 AM | permanent link

"A full-fledged Windows XP computer that's a fraction of the size of a laptop seems like the answer to the digerati's prayers, but the praise greeting the OQO Model 01 has been decidedly muted." - OQO Is Not Just Another Handheld Device via Reuters.

The TeleRead take: Ideally one trend will hold up. The company has a backlog. Let's see if more than the early adopters snap up the OQO. From afar, at least, it looks promising as an e-book reader for people who don't demand a tablet-sized screen.

Related: Handtops.com's coverage of the OQO.
posted by David Rothman at 1:01 AM | permanent link

From eBook Culture:

The Hyperliterature Exchange (found via Tenebris): "Somehow, though, a novel on a computer screen seems much less readable than the same novel in book form. In order to challenge the supremacy of print, an e-text needs to offer something extra"...Continue reading this entry...

The TeleRead take: Interbook linking--even from sentence to sentence--is among my own favorite extras. OpenReader would allow this capability.
posted by David Rothman at 9:31 PM | permanent link