A glory of e-books is that they require less investment by publishers and readers. What's more, they can be called up instantly. Too, they are more open to "viral marketing"--fans can talk them up and spread the good news. With file sharing technology, publishers can let readers pass along sample chapters or even complete books. Various forms of protection, including the best one of all, fair prices, can help assure the right compensation for creators. Luddites smug about the p-book world might consider a paragraph in a BusinessWeek review of recent novels about the industry:Has book publishing fallen into...

From Circulating eBooks to PDAs in France Landowski Library Lends Life to eBooks--an item in InfoSynch:Since May 2003, Landowski library in Boulogne-Billancourt has been running an experiment in lending eBooks for PDAs, Smartphones and Tablet PCs. The publishing company Mobipocket is the partner for this 12-month-long test which enables any registered reader of the library equipped with a compatible device to load various selected eBooks from an infra-red station located in the library. The works delete with time and include reference books like dictionaries and tourist guides. Readers will be able to access the works directly from home...

Gemstar's e-book division is now more or less kaput, but what if outsiders bought it and you could buy similar hardware, new? Or at least benefit from a better bookstore arrangement--maybe even with fairer prices? Perhaps there's hope. On the RCAebooks list, I've just spotted the following from an Alabamian named Mark Bodenhausen:I am currently working on a proposal for a group of investors interested in Gemstar's eBook division. The proposal includes a revised business and marketing plan and I wanted to hear input from you all about what you specifically liked or disliked about your eBook.Among the questions:...

Check out some new voice synthesis technology from IBM. "US Male Voice 2" is much less robotic than some of his predecessors in the synthesis world and in fact sounds a bit like Jimmy Stewart, if you go by the pauses. Sooner or later will Netfolks and Hollywood fight over such issues as unauthorized use of celebrity voices for reading e-books?...

The new chairman and CEO at the Recording Industries Assocation of America is Mitch Bainwol, who once was chief of staff for Bill Frist, the Senate Majority Leader. He'll replace Hilary Rosen.Washington remains a well-bought place via campaign contributions and overpaid celebrity lobbyists, but a little hope comes from a recent column in the Post, one whose message Baiwol and the rest might want to consider: When Money Talks Too Loudly.Actually I'm thinking in the long run. More and more members of the MP3 generation are reaching voting age, and many will want to swap movies, not just...

Will Microsoft hasn't released Reader softfware for the Smartphone, but Mobipocket is on the way, according to msmobiles.com, going by a report from a Mobipocket fan named OzGirl. (Via Pocket PC eBooks Watch.)...

"Over the past two decades, increased concentration in the publishing industry has been accompanied by significant escalation in the price of serials publications, eroding libraries' ability to provide users with the publications they need." - Information Access Alliance, which consists of the ALA and other groups.The TeleRead take: The alliance calls for a new federal standard for anti-trust enforcement. Check out its white paper, which, alas, is in PDF. Would you believe, the cost of medical journals has gone up 43 percent since 1998 and that math and science journals are 32 percent higher. My fantasy is that the...

So what are the most popular authors among users of Project Gutenberg? For privacy reasons, PG doesn't track this as closely as it could, but here are the probable biggies as reported by PG founder Michael Hart in an email today to the eBook Community list:Mark TwainJules VerneA. Conan DoyleCharles DickensLewis CarrollLeo TolstoiNietzscheMelvillePoeDaniel DefoeEinstainEdgar Rice BurroughsJane AustenPG also finds a heavy demand for "some reference works" and a "surprising" amount of fiction and non-fiction about the Wild West.Strange, but I thought that e-books were supposed to threaten culture as we know it. Perhaps the big names on PG's hit...

I'm all in favor of "academic freedom"--part of which is the right to come across as an imbecilic Luddite pandering to the like-minded. But should the American Association of University Professors have published an article as sloppy and dishonest as the one by S. David Mash, a "Ph.D. student in higher education administration at the University of South Carolina"? The title of Mash's article is Libraries, Books, and Academic Freedom: Can Academic Freedom Survive the Death of the Book? A better question, however, is whether the AAUP...

Librarians don't just cheer when a best-seller sends eager readers their way. They also groan. How many copies to buy to accommodate the crowd? E-books, needless to say, could help get the best-sellers to library users in a hurry. And a TeleRead-style approach could offer a variety of lending models for to suit the needs of libraries and publishers. Meanwhile the latest example of the challenge--let's call it that, rather than a problem--appears in yesterday's New Zealand Herald:There are 504 requests for the latest J.K. Rowling bestseller at Auckland City's libraries, which have 106 copies checked out...the borrowing list...

Online piracy of e-books is not yet causing a major dent in the profits of publishers, but it could eventually--as book-reading technology improves. Along with the rest of the e-book biz, it's growing. For a preview of the future, see Welcome to the worldwide web of on-line book piracy, from newindpress.com in South India. An excerpt:The seven books of Frank Herbert...

While I loathe Adobe PDF for e-books, I love Planet PDF, an independent Web site devoted to the format. If I were Adobe, I'd fire the whole PR department and replace 'em with the Planet's chief inhabitants. In character, Planet Editor Kurt Foss just emailed me the following: Thanks for the recent Teleread references to several of our recent news items at Planet PDF. Wanted to let you know that I've long shared your disgust over the way some eBook publishers have chosen to apply permissions restrictions to public domain books.If you'd like a version of Huck Finn in PDF--but not...