e.Digital Corporation (fka EDIG)

[gernb1]

Online book-sharing service for the blind borrows a
page from Napster


Posted on Fri, Mar. 01, 2002


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Bookshare.org is borrowing a page from
Napster, but hoping for a happier ending.

Much like the ill-fated music-sharing service, Bookshare lets computer
users share copyrighted material -- in this case, books -- over the
Internet.

Empowered with a special exemption from copyright law, Bookshare
hopes to avoid the bitter legal fight that bogged down Napster and
prove Napster's subversive technology can be applied for social
good.

Bookshare, based in Palo Alto, is building an online library of books
scanned into audio and Braille formats for the exclusive use of the
blind and people with reading problems such as dyslexia.

The target audience, about 5 million people nationwide, qualifies
Bookshare for a copyright exemption created in 1996 to encourage
greater distribution of literature to the blind and reading-impaired.

With a $1.3 million investment from a nonprofit technology
organization, Benetech, Bookshare hopes to break even by next
year. To do so, it will need at least 10,000 subscribers willing to pay
a $25 setup fee and a $50 annual subscription to download as many
books as they want.

``Great technology that helps people but doesn't make a lot of
money usually never gets done,'' said James R. Fruchterman,
Benetech's chief executive. ``We are on a mission to make sure
socially cool applications happen.''

If not for Napster, Bookshare probably never would have been
created. Fruchterman got the idea in 2000, shortly after his son
joined millions of teen-agers hooked on the music-sharing service.

Bookshare, launched Feb. 21, is starting out with 8,000 titles from an
eclectic mix of authors ranging from Shakespeare to William Shatner.

Fruchterman believes the library easily can expand to 40,000 digital
books within the next two years by tapping into the collections
stored on the computers of its users.

With just 5 percent of all books available on audio, many people feed
paperbacks page by page into a special scanner to create audio files.
It's tedious work requiring about three hours per book.

``Scanning books is kind of like watching paint dry,'' said Rich Ring, a
Portland, Ore., computer instructor who is blind. ``If you are going
to do it, why not share the work with everyone? That's what makes
Bookshare a wonderful way to give back to the community.''

One blind man who scanned a book almost every day for the past 10
years already has given more than 3,000 titles to Bookshare,
Fruchterman said.

Despite its special exemption, Bookshare faced some resistance from
book publishers worried about an invasion from readers who aren't
blind or disabled.

``About 20 percent of the publishers were scared to death of us,''
Fruchterman said. Bookshare didn't reassure publishers with its
original name -- ``Bookster.''

Bookshare eased industry concerns by keeping all its files on a
central, secure server. In contrast, Napster and other music-sharing
systems provided a springboard for users to leap from one hard
drive to another in search of copyright songs to download for free.

About 3,000 of the titles on Bookshare's site can be downloaded by
anyone because the copyrights on the works have expired. For the
remainder, subscribers must prove they are blind or have a reading
disability.

Despite the controls, publishers will be watching closely.

``Technology advances at a pace far faster than any of us can
imagine, so one of the things we are concerned about is what might
happen in the future,'' said Allan Adler, a vice president at the
Association of American Publishers, the industry's main trade group.

Bookshare's format seems unlikely to appeal to people accustomed
to listening to taped books read by professional narrators. Using
special computer equipment, books will come through in an
automated electronic voice.

``If you are not accustomed to sitting in front of a computer listening
to a synthetic voice read to you, this isn't going to be a very
attractive option,'' Ring said.

Those who prefer tactile reading can use specialized printers or
electronic displays to ``read'' braille. But such equipment is
expensive. So only about 10 percent of Bookshare's users are
expected to use braille, said Fruchterman. The rest will listen to
audio.

Other companies, such as Audible Inc. and Books on Tape Inc., sell
more polished audio versions of books online.

With 20,000 titles from books, magazines and newspapers, Audible
offers monthly subscriptions starting at $12.95 per month, while
Books on Tape sells audio tapes at discount prices.

Bookshare signed up 60 subscribers in its first week.

Blind people who participated in a three-month test are confident the
service will succeed.

``It's an idea that I had been wishing someone would develop,''
said John Panarese, a test user in New York. ``But I thought it was
going to be impossible after all the flak Napster got.''

On the Net:

http://www.bookshare.org