[free-sklyarov] Reuters: Electronic Publishers, Paper Power Vie at Book Fair

[Richard M. Smith]

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011013/tc/arts_books_electronic_dc_1.h
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Electronic Publishers, Paper Power Vie at Book Fair
By Emma Thomasson 

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Electronic publishing has turned its focus to
niche markets at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair as the industry admits
most readers would still rather curl up with a book than a bulky,
expensive screen. 

In contrast with the euphoria of last year, when some electronic
publishers predicted paper books would become museum pieces within a
generation, the industry has scaled back its ambitions since the crisis
that struck the New Economy. 

``The electronic book has not fulfilled expectations. It has come back
down to earth,'' Sabine Kaldonek, a spokeswoman for the world's largest
book fair in Frankfurt, said on Friday. 

``The technology still needs working on and we need to consider which
titles and which content is suited,'' she said. 

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SECURITY CONCERNS 

Many publishers are still put off converting their copyrighted texts
into digital format by concerns they could be copied and passed on for
free without proper encryption. 

Best-selling thriller writer Stephen King abandoned a project to publish
his book ``Riding the Bullet'' only on the Internet when many readers
stopped paying for installments. 

Nina Vogel, public relations adviser in Germany to software company
Gemstar, which produces the leading hand-held device onto which texts
can be downloaded, said both price and security for publishers would
determine future demand. 

``The future market depends on the device being cheaper and being able
to have more titles,'' Vogel said. 

``That depends on how the legal situation develops. At the moment the
rights to each title have to be negotiated individually which is very
time consuming.'' 

Many of the stands in the electronic media section of the Frankfurt book
fair offered specialist technology to allow publishers to encode their
texts to prevent piracy. 

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