All books accessible to all students by computer

David Rothman suggests in Computerworld magazine (USA; article entitled 'Information access for all') that governments could require all material longer than 10,000 words to be in computer digital form in order to be copyrighted. (Shorter articles could be scanned in to computers.) Most publishers are already using computers to set type, so this would not be an arduous obligation, if introduced gradually, perhaps through a voluntary programme. Every student would be equipped with a personal notebook computer and could dial into any of these publications using intelligent software to help zoom in on the exact topic required. Authors would be paid according to how often people dialled up their book. The distribution of the free notebook computers for students and libraries would be paid for by a 10% sales tax on TVs.