CNet has an interesting interview with Michael Robertson, the man behind the original version of MP3.com, Linspire Linux, and now MP3tunes.com. Most of the interview involves Robertson’s many battles with the music industry, and persistence with the mp3 format in spite of naysayers—well worth reading, but not particularly applicable to e-books. However, this part strikes a chord with what TeleRead has been saying about the importance of open formats. Robertson had been discussing how, in 1997, Real had 85% of the market and was thought to be the wave of the future. Q: How did Real blow it? Where Real missed out...

An alert reader pointed me to this blog on the Amazon Booksurge antitrust lawsuit. This is a suit, in Federal court in Maine, against Amazon and Booksurge alleging that they are engaging in illegal tying activity (which violates the Sherman Act) by forcing POD publishers, in this case the plaintiff, Booklocker.com, to use Booksurge if they want to sell their books directly. As a normal part of the procedure in a lawsuit, Amazon brought a motion to dismiss the suit, and this motion was just denied by the judge. This means that the suit can now...

For some time, netbooks such as the Eee have been discussed as a possible e-book-reading solution. Well, now DigiTimes reports that Asus will be launching an Eee-branded e-book reader (an “Eee-book reader”?) possibly by the end of 2009, and MSI is considering an e-reader of its own. The sources pointed out that the requirements for entering the e-book reader market are even lower than for netbooks, but the key to success lies in establishing a content delivery platform. The article is fairly short and sparse on details (it does mention that e-book readers are...

“Sony has confirmed that the UK will eventually receive a 3G-enabled Daily Edition eBook reader, but that it may take ‘a year or two.’" – PC PRO. Technorati Tags: UK,United Kingdom,Great Britain,Britain...

Picked this up from Electric Alphabet. Today at the Melbourne Writers Festival I had the happy task of announcing that my organisation, Queensland Writers Centre, will launch a new affiliate of The Institute for the Future of the Book in Australia in 2010. if:book Australia will promote new forms of digital publishing and explore ways to boost connections between writers and audiences. if:book Australia is the third centre of excellence for digital literature in this network after the Institute for the Future of the Book was established in New York by Bob Stein, and if:book London developed by Chris Meade. From the media release: The...

TeleRead has thousands of potential copy editors---our community members, whom we encourage to speak up in the right-hand column about glitches, or e-mail us directly. But what to do in the case of books? O’Reilly has systemized the reporting process. Authors can keep up with the feedback and comment on it. I strongly recommend such measures not just for O’Reilly-style technical books but also for any kind of book, novels included. Even newspapers might want to refine the error-reporting process. Same for (other) Web sites, including TeleRead. Meanwhile I’m still hoping that the New York Times...

Is the proposed Google book settlement fair to writers and publishers in the U.S. and elsewhere. And will such arrangement create other problems? In an MP3---click here---Peter Brantley of the Internet Archive talks to the Guardian. Via the Open Book Alliance, the archive is teaming up with Microsoft, Amazon, Yahoo, certain libraries and others to fight the proposed $125-million settlement. You can check out the Guardian’s accompanying text and read more via a Google news roundup....

Mobipocket Desktop is a proprietary creature, with a few notable exceptions---for example, the ability to import books from ePub, among other formats.  But Mobi Desktop at least offers a first-rate interface for e-booking on a PC or laptop. Imagine my hopes, then, when Google started letting us download ePub files directly without first visiting a Sony or Barnes & Noble site. Alas, however, as you can see from this Mobi screenshot from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the results are suboptimal. For some reason, at least in my case, ePub books are showing up...

I received the following email from reader Jeroen van Duffelen. The press release is quite long and I've placed a Google translation after the break. Some interesting news for the site. Yesterday Bol.com organized a big media event with Sony to announce their e-reading innitiative. Some highlights from the event: - Customers can pick their own device, Bol.com sells its e-books in the ePub format and allows customers to use their ebooks on 4 devices at the same time. - Bol.com partners with Sony and sells different devices (http://www.bol.com/nl/m/elektronica/e-readers/index.html) - Over 10.000 English books, starting with 3000 Dutch E-books. - Price model is variable, but...

The General Services Administration wanted to bill me thousands of dollars for copies of government offices leases. It was an epic Freedom of Information battle and made the CBS evening news. I won in the end, but only thanks to the intervention of Ted Kennedy---whose committee staffers knew my work might  raise questions about Democrats’ ethics. In fact, that’s exactly what happened. Knowingly or not, Sen.Abraham Ribicoff of Connecticut had held a secret and illegal investment in a building that GSA (photo) leased for the CIA. In fighting for Net neutrality---the topic of...

PcketLint has a few tips, most of which will seem familiar to American readers (via booktrade.info)....

So I'm watching the wonderful, if short lived, series Firefly and in episode 6 the Preacher calls for an encyclopedia. Lo and behold, it's an ebook reader. Thanks to the marvels of the Mac OS, with its built in screen capture, I can bring you a blurry picture of the unit. We can clearly see that the screen, on the right of the unit, is backlit, so it's not epaper. The ereader folds closed like a book, but I can't quite figure out what is on the left hand side. Not text, certainly, but some sort...