Hearst Launching Kindle Competitor and Platform "By Publishers, For Publishers"

The Hearst Corporation has announced their intention to launch an e-reader competitor to Amazon's Kindle and a supporting store and platform that is much more "publisher friendly." More details are available form their official press release this morning. "Launching in 2010, Skiff provides a complete e-reading solution that includes the Skiff Service platform, Skiff Store and Skiff-enabled devices. Skiff will sell and distribute newspapers, magazines, books, blogs and other content. Skiff gives periodical publishers tools to maintain their distinct visual identities, build and extend relationships with subscribers, and deliver dynamic content and advertising to a range of dedicated e-readers and multipurpose devices."

Comments

Re:Publisher friendly?

[Chyeld]

Executive Summary: We are out of our frigging minds and don't realize this is going to bomb faster than the orginal DIVX.

Even worse

[Anonymous Coward]

The unit has two spikes that can deploy on command/DRM violation, rendering the user blind.

But it does have a nice display.

Re:Publisher friendly?

[bill_mcgonigle]

Translates to: Screw the authors & screw the customers.

Many don't know that copyright in England was originally put in place to protect the authors from the publishers, not the readers with their pirate ink plates.