That's not to say there aren't matters to be resolved before some politician starts promising "an ebook in every palm." Nope. There are still issues surrounding the encryption technology in use, book selection, and device standards. Let's look at each of these issues in turn.

Hackers at the gate
Security. This is a major issue, and probably the most difficult of the lot. The reality is that hackers are out there just waiting for the next encrypted process to be released, and the time between release and a crack is getting incredibly short. For example, it was mere days after the release of Riding the Bullet that stories started to surface about the book being hacked and posted for free on a number of sites. Hackers break these things because they can. It gives them a rush to break the code and to be first to do it. I'm sure that as the news leaked out that Riding the Bullet had been cracked, dozens of sweat-soaked, bleary-eyed hackers out there let out a groan of disappointment that they hadn't completed the hack first.

Sure, the book only cost $2.50, but the hackers weren't playing the role of silicon-age Robin Hoods here. This wasn't about making the book accessible to those who couldn't afford it; this was about cracking the encryption scheme just to prove they could.

Maybe 128-bit encryption schemes, as opposed to Riding the Bullet's 40-bit scheme, are the answer, at least in the short term. Encryption is a real problem, and a potential detriment to the growth of the ebook industry. Hopefully, a solution will be forthcoming.

A matter of choice
The second hurdle is selection. I told you that I purchase my ebooks from Peanut Press. Their free reader is fantastic and their prices, though sometimes somewhat high, are fair. I fully expect a major drop once ebooks take off. As for selection, well, Peanut Press is improving every day, but it's a slow process. The problem with catering to the fiction audience is that it's a really, broad field. Every month scores of new novels are released. Right now, Peanut Press is just scratching the publishing surface. Sure, they have the last few Stephen King novels, but that's because Mr. King was an early adopter of the format, releasing his novels on various ebook-reading devices.

However, other authors and their publishers have been slow to follow. Fear of copyright infringement and lost revenues may slow the process, but if the proliferation of Palm devices and Windows CE devices continues, the number of sales may justify and offset the risk. In an interview, King is quoted as saying that he is likely to earn $450,000 from Riding the Bullet. If he'd sold it to a magazine, the total would likely have been significantly less. That's definitely something for authors and publishers to think about.

Compatibility
Finally, we come to device standards. For ebooks to come of age, we need to adhere to standards. It'll become necessary for ebooks to be device-independent, more colorful, and more graphical. Currently, there is no compatibility among ebook manufacturers. Part of the problem is due to the fact that the books were concurrently developed, with each publisher/manufacturer staking out its own turf. Through an ebook initiative, a standard for content delivery has been established, and most ebook publishers have promised adoption. However, the issue of encryption keeps them from being device-independent, as each manufacturer and publisher has devised unique means of encrypting the books.