Striding into China

Take a deep breath because ebooks may soon be hitting their stride globally. Amazon, according to The Digital Reader, has just added another country to the supported list for their Android app store: China. As you know, China holds 20 percent of the world's population. That's one out of every five people live in China. If they get hooked on the Amazon Appstore, Amazon, and then the Kindle and ebooks, the sky is the limit. Of course offering the appstore is only a small step in that direction. But, right now the Amazon Appstore is only available in the US, a handful of countries in Europe, and Japan, and the same goes for the Kindle Fire. But according to a press release Amazon will soon be selling Android apps in “nearly 200 countries” around the world, including India, South Africa, South Korea, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and even Vatican City. Today’s news is leading some to speculate that Amazon is just about ready to launch the Kindle Fire in China.

Software vs. artifact

Are ebooks software or artifact? Establishing their essence is absolutely necessary for there to be legal interpretation. So where do you come down? Myself, it’s easy. Artifact. I like the observation that software is function and ebooks are culture. But it’s not that simple, especially as ebooks become more interactive (involve more function). This is a hot topic in Europe right now, especially after a ruling by a German court, as reported by The Digital Reader, that because ebooks are not software (right) you can’t resell them (wrong). You see in Europe you CAN resell software, so if ebooks aren’t software, then you CAN’T resell them. Now does that really make sense? No. So expect the court ruling to change. Which brings us back to the real argument: can ebooks that are interactive be considered (static) culture? I hope so.