[Klug-general] eBooks purchase/formats/readers

[Mike Evans]

In a similar thread to Mike Rentell's question on eBooks:

1) What are the eBook formats available, what are the pros/cons of each. 
  I suspect that pdf would be preferred format as there are many and 
varied readers, but that as a result nothing worth getting is available 
in it.

2) Which of the formats have readers which work under Linux

3) Which are the good sources of eBooks for those formats which are 
readable on Linux?

4) What's the deal on ownership/copyright here?  As a complete novice to 
eBooks I would have thought that the reason a publisher/vendor wanting a 
proprietary format would be so that they can sell you a book which only 
you have the key to read - so you can't copy it to all your friends at 
zero gain to the vendor/author.  Given that authors make a living by 
selling their work that doesn't seem unreasonable to me.  I'd just like 
the price to reflect the fact that I can't sell it on and that they are 
not paying for the medium it is held on or the shelf space for 
displaying it to me on the high street/airport etc.

All this is of course motivated by the fact that I've just taken 
delivery of a Touchbook and that I'm about to spend some time away and 
I'd like to get some books to read on my new toy.

Mike