The end of paper

Remember way back when computer enthusiasts predicted the end of the newspaper? Who would need an old fashioned, wasteful, paper version of the news, when you could simply read it on your computer screen? Well, you are reading this on your computer screen, but you probably still read a paper version of a newspaper, in addition to online versions of several others.

Canadian media guru Marshall McLuhan was the first to observe that new media don’t supplant old media, but rather supplement them. Radio didn’t kill the newspaper, and television didn’t kill radio or movies. Now books are ready for a change, and an announcement yesterday by industry leader Adobe Systems could herald the beginning of a new age for the printed word.

“Digital distribution of electronic content, whether novels, “how-to” guides or business reports, is quickly becoming a hot topic among publishers and consumers alike,” says Ken Brooks, vice president of electronic publishing, Barnes & Noble, Inc. “Adobe PDF Merchant allows us to use the content we already have, provide broad consumer accessibility and protect the integrity of documents distributed across the Internet.”

“Integrity” is the k word here: publishers, authors and virtually anyone involved in the publishing business have long been vexed by the problem of electronic copyright. If you can simply download a book off the Net, how does everyone (or anyone, for that matter) get paid?

Adobe PDF Merchant will be integrated into existing e-commerce and transaction servers. It manages encryption of PDF files and the distribution of “keys” to access them. Adobe’s Acrobat Reader program will incorporate the “Web Buy” feature, which will let us consumers purchase the key to decode the “book” for our own use.

Adobe says the technology will be up and running early next year. In the meantime, you can take a test drive of the eBook “buying experience” at the Adobe website.