Wrong timing?
With e-books, you can make use of the computer's built-in dictionaries, search functions, bookmarking and multimedia capabilities to make research easier, and reading a more tactile experience.
But like every great contribution to entertainment and learning, the technology invariably has to be tainted by ugly human selfishness, greed and impatience.
So, by the first, altruistic definition of e-books, you can convert your son's award-winning sixth grade essays into an e-book (ok, ok, e-anthology), and distribute it online to let anyone with a computer or PDA read it, print it, lend it.
By the second e-vil definition, the same e-book can only be downloaded one page at a time; you will be allowed to read it on-screen only--no printing allowed. Neither will you be able to lend it to friends, because proprietary e-book will detect unauthorised use. Corporate paranoia over piracy has even prompted e-publishers to encode some e-books so that they can be read only on specialised handheld devices called e-book readers (US$200 - US$700) that aren't of much use beyond serving as difficult-to-read screens.
E-books in Asia? Wrong timing!
Lycos Asia has been selling chapters of some works of Singaporean writer Catherine Lim. Assuming you have the patience to wait two days to download and pay for two chapters each time, you would still not be able to print the book out for offline reference, "due to copyright restrictions."
On another front, e-book technology in its non-commercial altruistic form, is making inroads at Asian academic institutions in countries like Singapore and Japan.
