Surprise of surprise, a Pew study finds that the Net is now a primary medium for many Americans. So, when will policy makers in the States and elsewhere connect the dots and put libraries on the Net in a major way--complete with modern e-books, not just valuable classics?...

If you want to know why book sales in the States aren't growing as quickly as they should, one big reason could be publishers' infatuation with predictability. Nowdays it isn't enough to write a good book to enjoy really serious attention from major publishers. You must have a "platform"--for example, your own TV show or a business with an army of PR flunkies. A Washington Post article offers NBC interviewer Tim Russert as an example of the platforming of U.S. publishing.The TeleRead take: Via a TeleRead-style distribution system, books could be easily and legally shared by readers. What's more,...

Useful site from 321 Studios, makers of DVD authoring and backup software. - Via The Shifted Librarian....

"Coverage of the case in the Russian press has abated following the initial surge of xenophobic indignation in July last year. But the indigenous media--both print and electronic--failed the tests of maturity, balanced reporting and adherence to reality. They could have transformed their coverage into a tour de force of the 'poor east' against the 'rich west,' freedom of speech versus stifling multinationals, digital versus print copyright, noble principles contrasted with grubby money. They could have garnered the support of liberal intellectuals and free thinking folks the world over. Instead, they defaulted into their usual mode of wild speculation...

"Readers are deserting public libraries, depressed by shabby decor, odd opening hours and the impossibility of getting the book they want, according to a report into the country's libraries. Despite a sharp rise in the number of books being bought and read by children--thanks to the 'Harry Potter effect'--younger readers are staying away from their local branch libraries. There are fewer than two books per person in libraries across Britain. 'There is a potential crisis looming for library services in the future,' said Claire Creaser, one of the report's authors. The report says the number of books being taken...

1. DRM5 Microsoft Reader has been cracked by a 32K program.2. Not guilty for Elcomsoft in providing a program to crack Adobe-format e-books--for fair use.3. More mainstream e-books are available. Tens of thousands of titles are in digital form, according to a recent Newsweek story.4. Sales of e-books hit records. 5. E-books go to campus.From Jerry Justiano of Pocket PC eBooks Watch, based on nominations from his readers....

"DigitalOwl.com - Hooters: E-book company, DigitalOwl.com, just bit the dust after three years of operation and burning through $11 million in venture investments." - F'd Company.The TeleRead take: Pocket PC eBooks Watch nicely zeroed in on some comments from the F'd Company forum. "These are supposed to be books. If you think you can charge the same price (or higher) as printed-on-paper with these things, you are doomed to failure. With any form factor, you will not succeed until you make this type of 'content delivery' cheaper than print." Exactly!...

"The congressional Class of 2002, which has more than two-dozen millionaires, will face votes on issues that could affect their financial holdings." - The Associated Press, Dec. 25.The TeleRead take: Hey, the issue isn't just conflict of interest. It's also empathy. Will the typical millionaire really care as much about online public libraries as an ordinary mortal interested in self-improvement? Yes, wealth is hardly incompatible with a concern for the commonweal. But isn't it fascinating that Bill Gates bought several copies of The Great Gatsby for the private library of his $50-million-plus mansion, yet failed to understand the importance...

So you want to know why even honest e-book buyers will cherish software to help them crack encryption schemes? Read a horror story that we just ran across from a victim, er, user, of the Microsoft Reader. He didn't have to resort to cracking, thanks to e-books in a Palm format that worked on his PocketPC-type machine, but first he went through his own little hell because Microsoft had moved on to a different verson of its reader software. Adding to his frustrations? Win XP. Microsoft's tacky treatment of early owners of the PocketPCs, when it come to reading...

Merry Christmas to all of our readers who celebrate it! Luckily even the most zealous of the copyright Scrooges cannot wipe out the entire public domain. And so, via an email list from Project Gutenberg, we're pleased to bring you the following old favorite--first published in 1823 by the New York Sentinel.THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS(A VISIT FROM ST. NICHOLAS)by Clement Clarke MooreTHE MILLENNIUM FULCRUM EDITION, 1988'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the houseNot a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,In hopes that ST. NICHOLAS soon would be there;The...

"Are we expected to simply pay our money up front in the vain hope that sometimes we will be allowed to read? We believe this was not the intent of Congress." - Paul Schroeder, vice president of governmental relations for the American Foundation for the Blind, as quoted by Wired News on the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The TeleRead take: This was just one of a number of scathing comments that the U.S. Copyright Office received on the act when the office sought public reaction as required by law. Meanwhile it's good to see a court weakening the...

TeleRead has emphasized the need to enrich the Net with literature--not just upload "practical" technical information. Balance, please. And now we've run across some possible new fodder for this argument. In his best-seller American Jihad, terrorism investigator Steven Emerson quotes his colleague and friend Khalid Duran as saying that engineers and other university graduates without education in the humanities can be extra-vulnerable to recruitment by Muslim extremist groups. Exactly how does this fit in with TeleRead? Again and again we've advocated the establishment of well-stocked national digital libraries in developing countries, which, like the rest of the world,...