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Heh. I would have joined this discussion yesterday, but the Noreaster took out my internet connection. Then the dog ate my homework. But thanks to rlauzon, I don't have much to add to yesterday's debate.
But I will say this: It may be that only one thing is holding e-books back from finally starting down the same path blazed by the online music industry... one common format.
A single e-book format, readable in its entirety or in selected parts by any and all readers (hardware and software) would go a long way towards consolidating the e-book market, cutting waste based on competing standards, creating fair competition, standardizing prices, eliminating DRM, de-confusing the public, and levelling all playing fields.
Overall acceptance of the MP3 format did all this for music. I believe overall acceptance of a similar e-book format (at most, two... one including multimedia content, one just text and images) will start the e-book industry down the same road.
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