Seybold Seminars Keynote: Microsoft announces an alliance with Amazon.com to build an eBookstore

Dick Brass, vice president of technology development at Microsoft's research division kicked off the Seybold Seminars Web conference keynote with a montage of slickly prepared slides and sound bites showing the progression of books from the days of stone tablets and papyrus, through to the release of the Microsoft Reader in 2000 and beyond. Incidentally, the year 2008 is pitched as when eBooks will top traditional hard copy book sales, with 2018 as being the year of the last paper edition of the New York Times.

And in one of the rare occurrences when software vendors intentionally mention the name of their competitors in a positive light, Dick welcomed competitor Adobe Systems as partner in the eBooks space assisting to grow the industry. In contrast, Dick slapped those who support the music industry’s archenemy Napster on the hand consistently throughout his keynote -- stressing that much education is required to convince people that stealing bits is the same as stealing goods.

Dick spoke at those who suggest that eBooks should be released without copy protection and digital rights management schemes. He broke this group into two sections:

  1. Trust-fund Marxists. Already having made their money, see no need for themselves (or anyone else) to be paid for their work in the future.
  2. Digital defeatists. These are the people who believe that it is inevitable that digital content will be pirated and therefore we should give up without a fight.

Dick’s method for avoiding the same woes as the music industry is to establish an honest legal market first thereby beating pirates to the black market. Dick sustains that contrary to the thoughts of some, it is the content that is not made available that is most likely to be pirated. By providing ready access to content, you reduce the incentive for would-be pirates.

Finally, Dick said that copy protection without enforcement is just a challenge and that hackers would always be able to break through systems given enough time. And in a dig targeting those who see that free access to information is a fundamental right, Dick stated that information does not "want" to be free. Authors "want" to get paid.

Surprise, Surprise!

Of course, retaining the element of surprise, Microsoft’s eBook maestro saved the final few minutes of the Web Conference Keynote to announce the Microsoft alliance with Amazon.com to build an eBookstore using Microsoft Reader as the preferred eBook Reader.

Lyn Blake from Amazon.com outlined Amazon’s intention to work with Microsoft to provide a selection of their books in multiple formats such as eBook, hard copy, and audio book where possible. Lyn mentioned that Amazon will be distributing a customized version of the Microsoft Reader and that Amazon selected the Microsoft Reader due to its clean uncluttered display and its use of ClearType technology.

Lyn stated that whilst it is still the early stages of the game that she encourages publishers to start preparing their eBooks for Microsoft Reader.

Giving no details of a release date of the site, you will probably need a wait a while before seeing any .LIT files replacing hard copy at Amazon just yet.

A snap Microsoft press conference was announced for 10:00, just prior to the Adobe Systems 10:30 press conference which had been touted as revealing an Adobe acquisition in the eBooks space (later established as being the other major PDF-based eBook Reader Glassbook Inc.)