Ladies and gentlemen!

Our company, the International Centre of Fantastic (MCF), is engaged in electronic books development since 1977. We have created about 40 editions, among which are The Complete Works of Soloviev, Klutchevsky, Karamsin, Tolkien, Chekhov, Pushkin, Dostoyevsky, Vladimir Dahl, Sabaneyev, Leo Tolstoy; The English Library; The Encyclopedia of Russian Orthodox Church Music; The Encyclopedia of Fantastics; The Aquariumist’s Encyclopedia; The Bible; Russian History 1917-1935. These editions contain about 1000 volumes, and all of them have the same program shell designed by our company. It allows quick search through the whole text base, gives an immediate access to the thesaurus, contains a great number of pictures, provides video and audio effects. We have also published CD-disk Repin (in the Russian Painters series), which contains 2 volumes of memoirs, 600 illustrations and other materials. The Classic Music series is represented by Bach, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Mozart, Wagner, Chopin etc (11 hours of sound each). IQ Tests, Tests for Children and Parents and others start the Psychology series. The Brockhaus and Ephron’s Encyclopedia is our most recent project: now it is being transferred into digital form and corrected in accordance with modern grammar. This edition has 150000 articles, 400 MB of texts, and so the project needs 15 man-years of work. And we suppose to publish 30 disks in the Russian Painters series. Our long-term plans include transferring of all of Russian classics (about 4-5 thousand books) into the electronic form during 20 years, and in the nearest future (next year) we are going to transfer our electronic books from CD-disks to Internet.

What is an electronic book? It is the sum of text image and pictures image, accompanied by audio and video support. Today all the devices for electronic books reading can be divided in two classes: pocket devices and software for desk-top computers. Pocket devices give no possibilities to provide electronic books with audio and video information as yet, and pictures often can be presented in black and white only, while programs for desk-top PC allow to realise the possibilities of an electronic book all at once. Pocket devices represent the e-book standard. Since October 1999 the leading electronic companies have put on the market about 20 developments with different technical possibilities. Such devices cost from 200 up to 1,5 thousand dollars, and these days only their English versions are spreading quickly. German-speaking countries will also join the electronic books wide-spreading campaign by 2001, and the spreading of the first Russian developments should begin by this very time. The electronic books get texts from Internet, from its paid as well as fee-free sites. Every electronic book is connected as a rule only with one site of its manufacturing company. The next generation of portable computers is supposed to have a software possibility of reading the electronic books. As for the desk-tops, there is the whole number of programs for the presentation of electronic books, such as MS Reader, Adobe Acrobat and so on. We have developed our own software for desk-top PC, and every our CD-disk contains it. It allows to read texts, to import them to other programs, to search quickly through all the data base, to present on the monitor an unlimited amount of symbols in different languages at one time, to play audio while reading and to be able to view additional pictures or video images. And all this while using the same program shell. The last versions of our software use HTML text format and give the future possibility of switching to XML standard. The cryptographic protection provides safe widespreading of texts and prevents their illegal copying. The HTML standard is the most expensive form of text proceeding (high price of complicated proof-reading plus rich potential of internal illustrating).

There are two ways to represent the text information: a, by the electronic type-setting; b, as the picture (image) of the printed page. One page contains 2 KB of information in the first case, and 80 KB at least in the last while the preliminary proceedings value goes down by dozen times. One CD-disk is able to contain up to the 15 volumes (books). We have a proper program already, so that a user can read a volume a day. We also are ready for co-operation in the widespreading of our technology. Our company at the moment is working out a way of combining both methods mentioned. The main principle will be similar to the Fine Reader base principle. One reads the page image, and an unproceeded text block creates search base and makes possible the text import to other programs (if proof-reading is used, the value of the text presentation goes up by 3-5 times, and the possibility to proceed extra large libraries becomes practically nil). The system also makes possible proof-reading of the represented text.

The main problems of the electronic book creation are the preliminary proceeding, and representation of big text bases. Transferring of 1000 books into electronic form will take $100000. The program for reading is also complicated. To develop our own software for e-books (meaning labour input) and to get it going properly took 2 man-years. Today this program is offered as a standard. Our company is ready to publish any e-book for a very low fee. Next year the upgraded version of our program will be spread through Internet.

Legal aspects of e-books creation and spreading are the greatest problem. Russian Software and Electronic Data Bases Act, accepted in 1994, gives legal rights not only to the authors of the texts, but also to the company which carries out electronic type-setting. While legal problems related to the authorship are more or less reflected in Russian law, the legal aspects concerning rights claimed by those persons or organisations who do electronic type-setting or make anthologies are not reflected in any other laws, and authorities do not in fact help to realise such rights. We have revealed several cases of illegal use of our text bases. Unfortunately, we must ascertain that there is no possibility of sueing for such actions.

Technically, all electronic editions now are either represented on CD-disks, or placed on Internet sites. CD-disk as a data carrier is able to contain about 1000 volumes of texts, or several thousands of pictures, or about 200 hours of human speech, or about 11 hours of high quality music recordings (MPEG-3), or about 2 hours of the best quality video (MPEG-4, DViX). As a rule, e-books use all of or the biggest part of the enumerated sources of information (the multimedia term shows that CD-disk holds the most part of the named sources). As opposed to paper books, an e-book has additional possibilities: quick search; immediate reference to an encyclopedia or thesaurus or dictionary; access to new information, published after the issue of e-book (Internet); the possibility to correct errors in the already-published edition (Internet).

PC can read aloud any text using the Speaking Mouse program and gives the reader an opportunity to transfer the e-book into any standard he likes best (to change fonts, points, pictures, frames, backgrounds and so on). You also can turn e-book into any form you wish (like a professional editor) and add to the books you like best your own pictures, comments etc.

Programs for PC allow such active interaction between the reader and e-book as a game. Educational programs which quickly supplant traditional (paper) educational aids have a great future. As the value of electronic editions sale and spreading is practically non-existent as compared to the value of work with the materials, we get the chance to renew an edition and to make it better again and again. The marketing will cost you $0.46 apiece if you print 1000 CDs, and $0.37 apiece when printing additional 1000 copies.

The future of electronic editions depends on very low expenses for each drawing, on high speed of sales and on quick getting of e-books to the user, especially through Internet. As US President assures us, 50% of educational literature will be issued in electronic form by 2004. We should like to draw our Ministry of Culture’s attention to the fact that they have no support programs for widespreading of educational literature in electronic form in Russia. Today our country is obviously short of school textbooks, published in the customary way. All our universities still publish their educational aids for inner usage on paper, and so sometimes make students study old, not up-to-day materials because of the high price of printing little editions on paper. New technology of single-recorded CD-disks spreading allow to issue educational e-books by piece as well as by large drawings not changing the value of the industrial manufacturing ($0.4-0.6 apiece).

The growth of interest in electronic editions is due to the quick computerising of the society. The price of a second-hand computer of initial level (486 processor, which is enough for reading any e-book) now is about $100. An average modern computer costs about $500 in Moscow. Every family can afford to buy a PC once, even in such country as Russia where income levels are so low, and as the work with Internet gets permanently cheaper, it becomes available to wide range of Russians.

Besides the e-books per se, the proper system of spreading is necessary, wide and stable. At the moment we have no such system in Russia. More than a half of all legal editions is spread by pirates. The only our hope lays in our public libraries together with the bookshops. Regrettably, those who want to widen assortment in their bookshops must get a new promoter’s license, as Russian law dictates, which is to their disadvantage and does not pay because of no guarantees of getting high profits. Our bookshops are ready to begin such sales with the growth of the assortment of Russian and foreign CD-disks. Our libraries ought to offer more actively the chances to use CD-disks to their readers. But this demands a change of the licensing system, i.e. of the contract between the user and the creator of CD-disk. Such contract must provide the possibility of lending e-books to the user, in which case any economical interest will be considerably diminished or totally excluded.

The high expensiveness of the materials proceeding is the main difficulty in the widening of e-books assortment. The expenses for preparing of The Complete Works of Chekhov or a similar e-book (taking into account all preliminary works) reach $5000, while spending on typing and proof-reading of one volume come to $100 approximately. As the system of e-books spreading in our country does not provide the wholesale price of common CD-disk to be higher than $2, it is necessary to spread more than 500 exemplars in order to cover your outlay. Our experience shows that it takes no less than 2-3 years, which makes such developments profitless. Our company creates electronic editions rather of altruism than of any financial considerations. The great prospective of the electronic editions of the kind mentioned demands not only creating but sparing no effort in this process. Our task is to keep safe and to increase the Russian cultural inheritance and so to provide the widest access to it. Because all components of this cultural inheritance are stored in the state institutions (museums, libraries, archives), we badly need the access to it in order to work with the materials, to prepare them and to transfer them into electronic form. But we encounter with obvious counteraction expressed either as the denial to give us such access, or as the demand of a very high fee. In order to publish more electronic editions we need the legal financial support of the state and financing from public and other funds also. We have to remark, however, that at the moment private persons are more interested in the problem than state functionaries. For example, not very long ago we have made an attempt to transfer the images of all Pushkin’s manuscripts (12500 pages) into electronic form. But the members of staff of scientific body of Pushkin Museum met our offer with a flat refusal. They seem to regard these manuscripts as a matter of economical importance in the first place, and so arguments like the necessity of wide access to them for general public mean nothing to them.

The most democratic and cheap way to present an electronic edition is Internet. The common practice today is the fee-free spreading through Internet of a great number of electronic editions. At the moment there are about 2,5-3000 volumes of texts in Russian Internet. Regrettably, the refilment of the net occurs owing to the individual groups of enthusiasts, whose efforts are badly co-ordinated and who have no strategic plans. However, the most part of freshly published fantastic and popular literature goes to Internet in no time. But the books of any practical significance appear only from time to time and without any system. Today Internet gets about 50 very poorly proof-read volumes weekly. Also the violation of authors’ rights often takes place, because Russian law cannot provide any real maintenance of copyright as yet.

Our company is now working out the system of legal paid spreading of electronic editions through Internet. Such a way of spreading allows to publish books as soon as they are written, by parts or by chapters. It will give an active reader an opportunity to affect the development of the subject (which is an interactive connection between the reader and the writer) and will become the true culture revolution in the field of person/society mutual influence. Having rather considerable experience in development and spreading of electronic editions, we hope that such projects will not turn absolutely unprofitable. This will give us a possibility to pay royalties in accordance with a number of orders for a book. The cryptographic protection system will keep the author safe from pirate copying — and we should like to draw your attention to the fact that an illegal system of spreading cannot be controlled by authorities of any single country.

We hope for the wide co-operation of all interested parts and for all kinds of help in the creation of electronic editions.

Thank you very much.

Zlokazov Mikhail Vsevolodovitch - the general supervisor of the MCF publishing house developments. Leads the development of multimedia CD-disks for a number of publishing houses since 1994 and the developments and marketing for MCF publishing house since 1996. He also is the director of MSB-M, ICF and Altruist companies.

The MCF publishing house (The International Centre of the Fantastic) was founded in 1994 on the base of Altruist publishing house as a commercial organisation for development and publishing of CD-disks and for pagemking and book design for other publishing houses.

MCF has already developed and published the Classics CD-disks series, in which paintings, music, classic literature and encyclopedias are represented. The series consists at the moment of about 40 CD-disks. The MCF publishing house also worked on the software russification, including the Linux operating system.

The MCF’s developments had won awards in Russian competitions many times.

Now we are working on the system of spreading classics through Internet and on our biggest text project, The Great Brockhaus and Ephron’s Electronic Encyclopedia.