Title:
E-Books Hold Next Chapter for Book Industry
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Economics Report.
See text below
Text:
The book industry is trying to get a good read on
its future.
These days, instead of turning paper pages, many
readers reach for handheld devices. These electronic
readers not only store books to show on a screen,
they can also read them out loud.
In July, Amazon lowered the price of its Kindle
reader by sixty dollars to just under three hundred
dollars. The device can download books wirelessly
from a store on Amazon's Web site. Most new releases
and bestsellers cost nine dollars and ninety-nine
cents. Newspapers, magazines and other services are
available for a monthly charge.
Buyers of e-books get a good deal. Traditional
hardcover books often cost around twenty-five
dollars. But what about book publishers and writers?
Their concerns about profits are like the ones
voiced as the Internet began to change the music
industry. Many e-books are already selling for
ninety-nine cents. Books printed on paper are easily
shared and resold by anyone. But e-books can act
more like computer software licensed only to the
user who buys them.
And some Kindle users got a shock in July. They were
surprised to find that copies of two books
disappeared from their devices. These were
ninety-nine cent versions of George Orwell's "1984"
and "Animal Farm."
Bloggers have had fun pointing out that "1984" is
largely about censorship -- the suppression of
information in a society led by Big Brother. Amazon
explained that it did not have the rights to the
books, so it erased them and returned the people's
money.
Also in July, Barnes & Noble, the worlds largest
bookseller, launched what it calls the world's
largest e-bookstore. People can read the books on
the Apple iPhone and other handheld devices and
personal computers. They can also download over half
a million books available free from Google. The
Internet search company is putting books online that
are no longer protected by copyright.
But last October, Google reached a one hundred
twenty-five million dollar legal settlement to also
make parts of some copyrighted books available. That
deal with two groups of writers and publishers has
raised competition issues. The Justice Department is
now investigating. Also, the European Commission
plans hearings in September on how European writers
might be affected.
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report.
Transcripts and podcasts of our reports can be found
at voaspecialenglish.com.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
