As far as his second issue is concerned, perhaps the industry could do with having something analogous to the computer industry’s Steam digital distribution platform. For those not in the know, Steam is a service where games can legitimately be purchased for download over the internet. Once purchased, games are permanently linked to your account and can be downloaded any number of times and used on any number of computers (though only on one at once), and the company running Steam has made a commitment that in the event their service closes down they will provide a utility to remove the authentication requirements for all purchased games.

Several of the online ebook stores have parts of this paradigm already in place, but none of them seem to have been willing or able to make that final commitment to unlock files if they go under. The lack of a single unified platform is a problem as well.

As far as the Sony Reader itself is concerned, I’m interested in how well it will fare here in the UK.

>>>But Stephen Bury, head of European and American collections at the British Library, said the book lover and pleasure reader would not give up the traditional paper book for an electronic gadget.

>>>>He said: “How can you guarantee you are going to have access to the books on the Sony Reader in five or 10 years’ time. If you’ve got a library of 100 hard copy books it’s hard to lose them.

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/ebook+will+not+threaten+paperback/2441232