Reading at the Rate of 10 Cents Per Hour

Chris Taylor writes, \”Come on, hurry up. The clock is ticking. This column will self-destruct in 60 seconds. Haven\’t reached the end of the first paragraph yet? That\’ll be another 25 cents, please. You think I\’m joking? Well, if one company\’s vision of the future of online reading is to be believed, folks who eyeball each line with a snail-like finger had better have deep pockets. On Monday Rosetta Books, a major player in the nascent e-book market, announced a \”$1 for 10 hours of reading\” deal. You pay a buck, download the book, then 10 hours later the text gets all scrambled up. Haven\’t finished? Tough luck; you have to pay again to unlock it. Right now this is just a trial deal attached to one tome — Agatha Christie\’s \”And Then There Were None\” — but you don\’t have to be Poirot to know that it won\’t end there, or that 10 hours\’ worth of reading won\’t stay that cheap forever.\” more… from Time Even More from CNet News.

August 9, 2001 by Uncategorized 0

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