Heirs of Margaret Mitchell have threatened the U.S.-based Project Gutenberg and Project Gutenberg of Australia--charging infringement of copyright.The Stephens Mitchell Trusts wants Australian Gutenberg volunteers either to remove Gone With the Wind from their servers or else take steps to prevent downloads in countries where copyright law bans unauthorized distribution of the 1936 classic.Otherwise, a lawyer for the heirs says in email and a certified letter, "we will take all appropriate steps to protect and enforce our clients' rights."Special interest law vs. American culture Welcome to the world of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, which corrupted U.S....

"HP Laboratories Bristol has developed a prototype of a display that is bistable, color, plastic and is made by imprinting and lamination processes that eliminate the expensive vacuum deposition and photolithography used to make today...

An item from Palm Infocenter, dated Oct. 25: PowerByHand today announced at the CTIA Wireless I.T. conference that it has changed its name to Motricity. The new name reflects the company's unified solution for mobile content delivery and the company's vision of empowering any mobile user to transform their device into a highly personalized extension of their life."We are excited about launching our new corporate name, which we believe more accurately reflects our vision and leadership position within the global mobile industry," explained Ryan Wuerch, Motricity...

"There is a significant lack of material in a variety of subject areas. Fiction and nonfiction featuring or about minorities is in particularly short supply. There is very little about film or drama. There's not a whole lot on personal finance either." - Jay Hartman of KnowBetter.com, in a post to the eBook Community list.Jay goes on to comment that "it's a safe bet that the bulk of the ebooks out there are fiction: fantasy, sci-fi, romance and mystery. Most of those don't feature minority characters. So, if you steer clear of those things, virtually everything else is pretty...

Prepare to get screwed by digital rights management, in the Inquirer, makes a congent case and includes a first-person horror story. DRM often isn't even good for the content owners....

Adobe's e-book format thrives not because it's the best--but rather because Adobe Reader is everywhere. Handheld owners suffer especially: the format is not as scalable as alternatives. People lack as much control over textflow as they should have. With software ergonomics in mind, not politics, some critics have even accused Adobe of offering a "fascist format."Now, however, as reported by the Associated Press, Adobe has taken another step to promote the use of its user-hostile software--a partnbership with Yahoo: For San Jose-based Adobe, the partnership will add online features to one of the software maker's core products, Acrobat. The...

Now that John Kerry already has his millions in Hollywood donations, will the Democratic presidential candidate be a little more courageous about the anti-consumer DMCA? A CNET story suggests that's a possibility. In a barely noticed remark on Thursday, the Democratic senator said he might support defanging the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)--the unpopular law that has prompted take-to-the-street protests from the geek community.If Kerry is serious, that would be a remarkable metamorphosis on a law that the Senate approved without one dissenting vote. It would also be remarkable because, contrary to what Kerry and President Bush tell you,...

"Recorded Books and NetLibrary are teaming up to offer downloadable audiobooks to libraries...

In Libraries ignore the value of stories--appearing in the Chronicle of Higher Education--a Wisconsin professor makes a strong case for balance when choosing content and setting other priorities: Statistics clearly demonstrate that many people rely on libraries for their stories, and generally, librarians know what gets checked out. Unfortunately, librarians have little knowledge of why people read what they do. As a result, they lack a deeper understanding of how libraries already serve readers, and they miss evidence that they could use to convince state legislatures and other sources of financial support that spending money on stories is important....

"Over the last few years, the prices of e-books have gone down somewhat. But try being a college student and finding that textbook for your class as an e-book, it is nearly impossible. I believe the reason for this is because publishers do not control that market, college bookstores do. And there is nothing like a book that can be resold three and four times before it being replaced. An e-book for the college crowd is just not happening." - Judging an E-book by its Cover Charge, in BargainPDA....

The ever-tasteful New Yorker Magazine magazine has spotted many amusing typos in mere newspapers. But here is one that you presumably won't see there:BEIJING, Oct. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office now shits their attention to the music industry, particularly its practices for influencing what songs are heard on the public airwaves.This gem--corrected by now?--made the home page of Google News.Detail: None other the late E.B. White was the author of the "news breaks" that made the magazine famous as a typo-spotter. Actually the readers probably did most of the original spotting, sharing the wealth...

Try to decode the weird logic from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. But maybe he was misquoted. See CNET's Ballmer: We need a $100 PC, where, by the way, he claims that piracy is Microsoft's biggest woe.One possible explanation: Did Ballmer actually mean that with cheaper PCs to rev up the demand for software, Microsoft could reduce its per-unit costs to the point where piracy wasn't worth the hassles? Sounds out of character for that outfit, but you never know.(Found via Pocket PC eBooks Watch.)...