GROUP STRIVES TO SET E-BOOK STANDARDS

[Tony Barry]

        From Edupage, 27 October 1998

GROUP STRIVES TO SET E-BOOK STANDARDS
A group of publishers, software makers and electronics manufacturers have
pledged to work together to set technical standards for electronic books.
Among the supporters of the standards are Microsoft, SoftBook Press,
Bertelsmann, HarperCollins Publishers, Penguin Putnam, Simon & Schuster, and
Time-Warner Books.  The standards are based on HTML and XML coding systems.
Publishers are attracted to the e-book, both because of the savings on
printing and distribution costs, but also because they could include more
illustrations, charts and even raw data -- material that might be excluded
now to save on printing costs.  "Publishers could present vast quantities of
data without loss of trees or muscle strain for our readers," says the
director of online publishing for McGraw-Hill.  On the other hand,
publishers still have reservations regarding the security of the technology
and fear that e-books will provide a new channel for copyright violations
and intellectual property piracy.  (Chronicle of Higher Education 30 Oct 98)

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