Press release located at: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/051026/265702.html?.v=1 Here's the text version: ********************************************************************** OSoft Partners with OpenReader Wednesday, October 26, 2005 Taking the "Fright" Out of e-books -- With Open Standards TACOMA, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 26, 2005 -- Buying e-books can be Halloween-scary. They come in many electronic formats -- everything from Microsoft Reader to obscure ones cooked up by hobbyists. You can buy 'em online, only to discover you've paid for the wrong format. Have you ever tried to return an e-book? But what if you could download an e-book and know the format was right for your PDA, cell phone, tablet or desktop computer system? Suppose an orange logo on the box reassured you: "OpenReader compatible"? And what if you saw a similar logo at an online retailer, so you could confidently buy the book? "That's our vision for OpenReader -- to help e-publications be as compatible and easy to buy and use as music CDs," says Mark Carey, president of OSoft.com. "We're modifying our existing ThoutReader(TM) technology to adopt XML, an international e-document standard that no one owns and everyone can use." The new format will come from the OpenReader Consortium (openreader.org), headed by e-book standards expert Jon Noring. Among the consortium's cofounders are XML expert Michael Day in Australia and Rick Barry, former information services chief for the World Bank, an archives-and-records specialist. Meanwhile OSoft will turn its XML-based ThoutReader(TM) into OpenReader by next May. "Anyone can build OpenReader-compatible software," says Noring, a veteran of years of standards efforts within the e-book industry. "But OSoft is the first to act. Microsoft and Adobe promote their proprietary formats, and Google and Yahoo are more focused on scanning images of books than promoting a standard format that can be customized and will look great on the screen." Victor McCrary, who initiated e-book standards efforts while at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, has endorsed OpenReader. So have leading e-bookstores like eBooks.com and Fictionwise.com. "Whether it's Google or a small online store, we're eager to help everyone adopt open standards," says co-founder David Rothman, OpenReader's strategy and external relations director. "We'll raze the tower of eBabel so e-books can be reliably read 500 years from now. Reading software may change over time but the basic electronic format can remain the same." Contact: OSoft Mark Carey, 253-284-0475 mcarey@osoft.com or OpenReader Jon Noring, 801-253-4037 info@openreader.org