Here's a new term for you--stogware, which blights DVD movie technology now and could hurt e-books in the future, when multimedia counts more.This neologism, which I'll define in a moment, came to mind when I was trying to play the DVD of Boiler Room, a film about stock-market crooks. Hollywood itself committed a crime against me. The DVD refused to run on on my Dell Optiplex unless I installed a program called PCFriendly. Orwell Land here. This "Friendly" program wasted half an hour of my time, perhaps because I preferred for my firewall to block the software's path to...

If any group is pro-librarian, it's TeleRead--promoting well-stocked national digital library systems that professionals would run in the States and elsewhere. At the same time we love grassroots efforts such as Project Gutenberg. Why? Careerism on occasion can triumph over common sense. And professional librarians and the usual media suspects mustn't be the only ones controlling access to information.The latest example of the need for alternative librarians is the shameful refusal of the American Library Association to go on record against the imprisonment of 14 Cubans who have run libraries not sponsored by the Fidel Castro's totalitarian government....

Think readers were Gemstar's biggest victims? That honor may belong to certain small publishers--now the targets of obnoxious legal efforts from Gemstar. Here's an e-mail I received today from Scott Schmidt, publisher of Salvo Press:Enjoyed your article on Gemstar. Salvo Press signed with the old Nuvomedia (Rocket) and saw a constant decline ever since Gemstar took over. I liken Gemstar to millipedes. They shot themselves in the foot far too much for mere bipods. Anyway, the kicker this week was they sent us a letter first by fax and later by certified mail wanting us...

In the p-book era I've racked up enough library fines to build a headquarters, not just a branch. Hey, it could be worse. I think of the fines as donations to my favorite library system in a near-by county (alas, my own city's library is too understocked for my needs). The issue is one of time. I'm self-employed, and in effect it costs me money when I must fight traffic. Simply put, I've got the most selfish of reasons to be keen on Project Gutenberg, whose public domain classics can remain on my computer forever. I love to skip...

Chris Pirillo, the master Gnome at LockerGnome, publishes e-book tutorials on topics ranging from Linux to publicity for small businesspeople. And right now he's looking for new writers. But don't expect your work to appear with Digital Rights Management. An FAQ tells why:We take the "WinZip" approach to marketing. The company has done virtually nothing to curb the rampant piracy of their software. Do they lose money? Yeah, sure--but they've got the top position as far as Windows compression software is concerned. When someone thinks "ZIP file," they think of WinZip. And yes, registrations are healthy enough for...

Illegal copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, latest in the Potter series, are showing up on Usenet.But some e-bookers want to do the right thing. Byron Collins, moderator of of the pda-ebook list, has just posted a petition suggesting that authorized versions of the books be sold in the popular PalmReader format, which Pocket PCs can also read. I'd rather that the petition allude to other formats, too, of course, but it's better than no petition at all--so sign it. I did even though I'm not a fan of Harry Potter (early 20th-century fiction would...

Sick of having your kid lug around heavy, back-straining textbooks? Here's an uppity thought. The feds or the states might think about requiring use of e-books in local school districts. We're talking about children's brains and backs alike. And it isn't as if the technology is as expensive as it used to be, especially compared to textbook replacement costs. Besides, as I can verify first-hand, from reading e-books hour after hour, the screen technology is much better these days. Perhaps schools could have a lenient deadline to make the transition without busting budgets. Legislators could respect the usual textbook...

Book publishers like some new legisation in Congress aimed at creating format standards for material used by blind students. See details via eBookAd, picking up a press release from the Association of American Publishers. Oh, to have some kind of standardization for the rest of us, not just the blind. Please note that we have not seen the proposed legislation--and may have further comments. From the AAP release:Among its key provisions, the legislation would (1) require all states to use the same standardized national electronic file format for the conversion of textbooks and other core instructional materials into accessible...

"U.S. Representatives Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) and John Doolittle (R-Rocklin) today introduced the Public Domain Enhancement Act, legislation that will ensure that abandoned works pass into the public domain so that others can preserve, archive, and build upon them." - Press release from a site promoting the Act.The TeleRead take: As noted earlier, the Act is not without its risks; I'd hate for the possible legal ramifications to harm Australia as a public-domain haven. Still, we badly need to try this approach. Sign the related petition and contact your Senators or representative. The main Congressional switchboard, by the...

That's not exactly what Allan Adler, a lawyer-lobbyist for the Association of American Publishers, said. But in a Cnet article on e-piracy--tied to the latest Harry Potter book--his observations were going off in that direction. Here's some context from the article:So is the trade in bootleg books the next Napster?Not until people become more accustomed to reading books on PCs, say traders and industry associations."With published books, most are released in hardcopy print first," noted Allan Adler, vice president for legal and government affairs for the AAP. "File sharing requires conversion through scanning, and just as consumers have...

Gemstar bragged and bragged about the e-book unit's closed distribution (Rip-Off City for readers) and the deals with major publishers. Still, at Simon & Schuster, Keith Titan appears less than pleased with Gemstar's philosophy--or at least its execution. From Publishers Weekly:"Gemstar customers are very dedicated ebook readers. Hopefully they'll migrate to other formats," says S&S's Keith Titan, who says the publisher has been seeing growth in all three other formats." Titan added that it wasn't the idea of a dedicated device but Gemstar's execution, which involved a closed-distribution system, that was the issue. "We still think that with things...

Here's what writer-publisher Ed Howdershelt, at Abintra Press, wrote recently about e-book-related hardware:Well, there's [a] rub. I never bought either a Nuvo Rocket or a Rocket eBook and probably won't mess with a e-reading hardware until one shows up that:--Has a hard drive like the new Ipod.--Can display HTML, PDF, or text files without conversions to some proprietary format.--Can be loaded from a CD.--Can run 24 hours on a charge OR use "AA" batteries.--Has a screen at least 4 inches wide.--Can play MP3 files through earphones, whether while reading or not....and sells for about $100.In case you're curious, iPods...