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The Franklin eBookMan, first appearing in late 2000, was an early attempt at a proprietary eBook reader. Unfortunately Franklin was so paranoid about copyright violation that every device had to be individually registered by the owner and connected to their PC before they could download the operating system required to get the device up and running. This allowed Franklin and other vendors to uniquely identify each device and 'tag' software, including eBooks, to run on that device and no other.

So anyone who walked into a store and asked for an eBookMan demonstration would get a blank look and a blank screen. Franklin did try and fix this later by putting out a number of 'demonstration' models, carefully neutered so they couldn't - horror! - display unauthorised works, only to cause more confusion and greater customer alienation when these got on to eBay and were sold by unscrupulous or misguided vendors as the real thing.

If and when you finally got it working, the eBookMan was a reasonable attempt to provide for reading on a cheap device with a monochrome screen. Apart from a tendency to crash when the battery was changed - which meant connecting to a PC and reinstalling the OS all over again - it could provide hours of happy reading. And it was quirky enough to have a character all its own.

But the damage was done at the point of sale. After a few years Franklin cut its losses and disowned the little device. Another Pyrrhic victory for DRM.

Amazingly, some eBookMan devices were still on sale in Sydney for close to their full original price ($AU300 and up) in March 2006.

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