Anyone heard of this? It's the Kindle (of which the current iteration is the Kindle 2), a device brought to us by Amazon, the online book store that made its name in the United States. It's an e-reader that uses 'E Ink', a groovy substance that allows static images to be displayed on a screen without power or back-lighting, to display text such as e-books or news.

This means that unless pages are being turned or data is being accessed/downloaded that it doesn't need to be sucking on the batteries, allowing for quite a few days of battery life. With decent on-board storage and expandable memory, it can hold upwards of 1000 books, and with 3G mobile access it seems like it should be touching upon Australian markets like a dove alighting a crest of peace and world stability.

Sadly this is not the case; instead that dove is getting throttled by the writhing mass of ichorous tentacles that is the publishing industry, which seeks to extract its due from the exchange. It means that despite the content being delivered digitally Australians must pay a higher price (after exchange) than their American brethren. Why? Distribution deals of course!

Much like the video game industry, digital delivery for e-books and music still suffers at the calloused and brutal hands of publishers, distributors and retailers who have signed contracts ensuring their right to distribute the materials being offered via the internet. Whilst there are a few shining examples, like Steam for games, that don't inflate the price of digital content for Australian users, most are content to remain in thrall to a retail system that has nothing to do with online business models.

Much like Rupert Murdoch's staunch refusal to accept the changing face of print media I think it might be a case of old views simply being incompatible with new technologies. It simply makes no sense that in the absence of shipping and printing costs that smaller/foreign markets should be made to pay for them. 

I can only take hope in the notion that like with any other outdated view that holds back progress, something is built into nature to ensure that innovation shall march on. And that is that those views stop when the cellular reproduction and brain function of those that hold them does. So without stark revelations and Dickensian ghosts telling of future woes to change the minds of those involved, peace can be found in the fact that these particular wounds shall be healed by time.

Though if, like me, you're an impatient nay-sayer, it's easy enough to write angry letters and support digital distributors even if the exchange isn't as fair as it should be. After all, money talks more than anything else to big business, so speak in their language if you can't wait for change to come.