2001 Was a Tough Read for E-Books
- From: J Flenner <varney@[redacted]>
- Subject: 2001 Was a Tough Read for E-Books
- Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2001 11:13:00 -0500
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,49297,00.html
2001 Was a Tough Read for E-Books
By M.J. Rose
2:00 a.m. Dec. 25, 2001 PST
It's been a difficult year for e-publishing, which shouldn't come as
a surprise considering it's been a difficult year for businesses in
general, and particularly those having to do with the Internet.
As 2001 comes to a close, Wired News asked 201 authors, publishers,
retailers and other industry analysts to describe the high points
and low points of the year, and to present a wish list for 2002.
The answers were varied and often predictable. Surprisingly absent
from the responses was any mention of the Tasini v. The New York
Times Supreme Court case, the Random House v. Rosetta Books case, or
the arrest and subsequent release of ElmcomSoft employee Dmitri
Sklyarov for presenting a paper on copyright security.
Nor did anyone specifically reference the large number of industry
layoffs, which Publishers Weekly estimated at 7,300, with over 2,000
of those lost jobs coming in e-publishing alone. Not specifically,
anyway.
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Michael S. Hart, director of Project Gutenberg: "The number of
e-books available for free download on the Net will pass 20,000. The
number of Net users will start heading towards 1 billion."
<snip>
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