Available literature in other eBook formats

Is there any likelihood of various texts being converted to other eBook formats? Such as Mobipocket, IMP or Sonys LRF format? Please do not take this as a complaint. The simple matter is while Adobes PDF format retains the most detail of full texts in a visual context, very few people that read eBooks use the format. One of the major reasons is it doesn’t take well to usage on mobile devices such as Palm handhelds or the increasingly more popular dedicated eBook devices such as the Irex Iliad, Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader.

I myself picked up a secondhand Sony Reader with the intent of starting a study of Austrian economics and other Libertarian books. I had planned to convert the files myself (Strictly for my own usage) but am almost at a point of giving up as one of the first texts I tried has taken several nights to start getting to a semi-usable form. At which point one has to wonder, why not just read it on the computer to begin with.

I don’t know if the Institute would be interested in releasing other formats and just doesn’t have the manpower (or capability at present) as I would be glad to put in some time converting for that purpose. Though it should be known that some things inevitably get lost in the process, and others abandoned as they just don’t crossover well (Page numbers and Indexes don’t work well, tables are often simplified, and images/endnotes are placed at the end of the book with links added)

I honestly believe that you could reach a very large audience if the effort was put into converting at least a few basic titles such as the first three suggestions in the Praxeology: reading list post. Once the eBook community gains interest, with permission of the Institute, they likely would do the work of converting any further texts.

I also understand that the texts offered for download are as a courtesy and you do in fact have a store, and courses with the literature. I don’t dispute the need to fund the Institute, simply that many of the PDFs offered up currently are probably downloaded with good intentions but inevitably just sit on a users hard drive after they’d read the Introduction and lost interest in staring at the screen :wink:

-MJ

Ok then… Could someone tell me who I could contact about obtaining permission to convert and redistribute some works which are on the site?

-MJ

jtucker