John
I would (and have in the past) argued that the defining element of an
e-book - or indeed any book - is the content. This was in the context of
defining the term, and steering people away from the idea that an e-book
is either the hardware+software (an e-book reader) or is dependant on the
platform for its existence - thus I suggested that it was wrong to say
that an e-book only existed in its physical manifestation (downloaded onto
a PC or onto a reader). That is, unlike a p-book which does only exist in
physical form, an e-book exists virtually and is given form (which may
vary from instance to instance, depending on the way your screen is set up
or on the software or software settings used) by the user, individually in
every case. The consequence of that argument is that you would have as
many editions as you have users!
However, I would suggest (tentatively) that a p-book and an e-book of the
same content would have to be different editions because the publisher of
each may - in the printing, or the preparation and placing on a server -
introduce subtle differences in the text. From that it follows that a
p-book of 'Treasure Island', an e-book of 'Treasure island' produced and
placed on server-A by one publisher, and e-book of 'Treasure Island'
produced and placed on Server-B by a third publisher would be three
different editions.
I don't know if that helps or if you agree with my logic, but its
somewhere to start...
Best wishes
Chris
______________________________
Chris Armstrong
Information Automation Limited
t. (+44) 1974 251302
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