Tiny eBook Reader for the Pocket PC won...

Here in the States, Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward Angel (1929) hasn't been freed for public-domain reading in cyberspace, but Eugene Gant, the protagonist, undoubtedly would have a few feelings on the matter. Consider a snippet of dialogue between him and an Indianpolis woman visiting his small town in the North Carolina mountains:"And a library--you have a big one, eh?""Yes. We have a nice library.""How many books has it?""Oh, I can't say as to that. But it's a good big library.""Over 100,000 books, do you suppose? They wouldn't have half a million, would they?" He did not wait for...

The eBook Library from eBooks Corporation will target "select university and research libraries in September 2003 and will be officially launched in January 2004," according to an announcement at BookExpo America. More details:EBL will feature Non-linear Lending(TM), a multiple-concurrent lending model which allows a single title to be checked out simultaneously by multiple patrons. Other features of EBL include digital interlibrary lending, unique eBook reserve functionality and lending by the chapter. eBook titles can be browsed online and then downloaded to a desktop, laptop, or hand-held device for use offline. The system will allow patrons to perform full text...

That's what David Weinberg says in his essay in the new Wired. My own take is similar to that of TechDirt. No need to make DRM a crime. The real punishment is inflicted on the shareholders of companies that use DRM cluelessly. Of course, when DRM interferes with access by the disabled, then it should be a crime. Here's an idea. Maybe some of the DRM zealots could don blindfolds and spend a month as "blind" people.Meanwhile here's some good reading for members of the Open eBook Forum--a few words from TechDirt:DRM products shrink your market, rather than expand...

Optics.org has a pretty good description of E Ink's latest prototype. Also see the display company's own material, especially a picture of the technology in action....

Just spotted...a helpful piece from Reuters on free books...Project Gutenberg, which started it all and has supplied the digital copies used on many other sites, could have gotten more attention, but overall the piece should do more good than harm.Suggestion: When the press writes about free books on the Internet, perhaps it can mention the copyright-term-extension legislation that deprived the Net of such classics as The Great Gatsby (or at least deprived U.S. users). The Reuters piece refers to Eldritch Press without noting its key role in the recent legal efforts to undo the damage. Via Eldritch, by the...

Are you visually impaired or otherwise disabled in a way that interferes with book reading? Or do you know someone else who could benefit from free talking books and even a player for them? Certain libraries in Hawaii, New Jersey and Mississippi are joining those in a one-year Illinois experiment overseen by the Illinois State Library Talking Book and Braille Service. Highlights:...Lobe Library [in Illinois] will offer digital talking books to readers from July 2003 to June 2004. Patrons participating in the TBBS Talking Book program who have a temporary or permanent physical or visual inability to read regular...

The Open eBook Forum is collecting stats from publishers, including nonmembers. Links:--Press release announcing program--Registration and methodology for statistics programAs much as TeleRead disagrees with the OeBF's failure to come up with consumer-level format standards, we very much support the existence of the organization and hope that publishers will cooperate on matters such as the above.With accurate stats, the group can more effectively cope with misunderstandings in the press about the extent of e-book growth....

A Reuters column and an AP story are both skeptical toward e-books. And not entirely without justification--given the Open eBook Forum's format debacle and the related fixation on copy protection.From Reuters:E-books, hailed in hi-tech precincts as the electronic alternative to traditional publishing, have failed to live up to their early billing as a replacement for the printed page, despite their popularity with gadget-obsessed pioneers."The (e-book) vendors will tell you that mass adoption is just around the corner," said Rich Levin, editor-in-chief of BookTech, a trade magazine for the publishing industry."When I talk to readers and publishers, they tell me...

Jon Noring's appeal for a universal consumer-level format for e-books is getting around. Why, it's even being translated into Italian. No surprise. This undoubtedly is the most important e-book-related article that you'll read in '03.Alas, some in the e-book biz still don't get it. Gasp, there's talk that standards could threaten business models. Jon and I have another take on this. Lack of standards would be a lot more lethal to the prosperity of the e-book industry. Worry less about the welfare of companies dependent on the proprietary approach and more about the business as a whole.And remember the...

It's breakfast time here in the Washington suburbs, and my wife and I have once again pondered a cosmic question. "Do you think Safeway will ever order enough black cherry yogurt?" I ask. "Always runs out first when yogurt's on sale," Carly acknowledges.But when we ask the grocery chain, we always get the same answer. "We're not going to order any more." No explanation.Might communications giants be a little like Safeway? Even if your tastes are no more exotic than cherry yogurt, you often lose out. And a proposal to relax Federal Communications Commission rules would just aggravate matters...

I've been revisiting Bleak House via my PDA and a text from Project Gutenberg. Copyright zealots remind me of Dickens' legal leeches. Think about it. The longer the copyright term, the more possibilities for lawyering. And guess what is among the more common occupations of members of Congress? No, it isn't as if copyright law is a major legal specialty of the lawyer-members on Capitol the Hill. But my theory is that lawyers tend to watch out for fellow lawyers or at least care less about the damage they do to society by fighting for lengthened copyright terms and...