[originaltext]W: Good evening, Mr. Brown, and welcome to the program.M: Thank

W: Good evening, Mr. Brown, and welcome to the program.
M: Thank you!
W: I wonder if you could tell listeners more about the work you do?
M: Certainly.
W: Mr. Brown, I gather that you work for a company developing software for reading electronic books?
M: That is so.
W: Do you think there is much future in that?
M: Well, people buy music online, so why not books?
W: You have to read electronic books on a machine, don’t you?
M: That is so, although of course you might be able to print them out on a printer.
W: So why should people read a book on an expensive machine when they can buy a cheap copy and carry it around with them and read it whenever they like?
M: That is an interesting point. People need time to become aware of the value of e-books.
W: Is it true that at the Frankfurt Book Fair, in 2000, there was a prize for the best books published in electronic form?
M: Yes, that is true, the prize was worth $100,000.
W: Who put up the money for the prize?
M: Err, software companies such as Microsoft and Adobe.
W: I suppose they are trying to encourage publishers to get the e-book business off the ground.
M: That’s probably true.