Heady time

There is some discussion in some quarters now -- apropos schoolbooks -- as to whether ebooks are, in fact, books or software. Very interesting discussion and impossible to resolve right now. But what is more germane to me is whether or not ebooks that an individual consumer might download on his ereader is a book, or software. And that is quite easily resolved. In the case of one reader and one ebook, the answer is: that's a book. Not software. Perhaps if the book is heavily enhanced with audio, video and interactivity one might have an easier time arguing that the ebook is actually software. But if only one person is purchasing the creation it is then not a service but a product. In the generic sense, that person and only that person will utilize the creation, so whether that creation is a unified product or a multifarious service, it appears as one product: a book. Whew this is getting heady.