Greg, I pretty much agree with what you say. But the one thing that really bothers me about this is not so much the E-Book aspect, but the implication it has for libraries in general. Perhaps I was pre-set to react to this article and took a leap forward, beyond the current issue. I know a couple of successful writers (ones whose books sell consistently and who are making a good living at writing) and I have met and talked with many writers at science fiction conventions and writer's conferences. Not all, by any means, but a disturbingly high percentage of these writers react like scalded cats it you mention public libraries in their presence. Their objection? "People can check out my books and read them for free! Every time someone checks out a book, that's one I don't get paid for." And if some authors feel that way, what do you think the publishers might be thinking?

Now that the recording industry has pretty much unhorsed Napster, the publishing industry is following their example by going after ways of distributing books, especially ways that don't run a book through the cash-register as many times as possible. The issue is not the welfare of the author (although they will give lip-service to this), it is maximizing their own profits.

Perhaps I should have titled this thread "Napster's dead. Who's next afterwho's next?" The current target is E-Books. It would not surprise me in the least if the next target is libraries themselves.

Don Firth