The Atlantic recently posted an interesting article about ebooks compared with music. Music from the 20th century is largely available through services like iTunes and YouTube. However, books from the 20th century are less available electronically. While music and books that were published before 1923 (i.e., that are in the public domain) are widely available, a recent study found that books published after 1923 are not available to the extent music is. The article asks the researchers for their opinions as to why this is the case. The reasons cited include the ease and inexpensiveness of digitizing music versus digitizing books. Also, the legal framework for copyright law is cited as a possible reason.

You can read the complete Atlantic article here.