Martin Eberhard, who, with his evangelist's zeal and heavy skepticism regarding traditional publishing, embodied the e-book invasion of the late 1990s, may be gearing up for a comeback. As part of his exit agreement with Gemstar, the former Rocket eBook CEO is barred from participating in any e-book business until 2005. But the possible closure or sale of Gemstar's e-book division could put Eberhard back in the game.

In an interview, Eberhard hinted that the idea of him heading a new venture was very much in play. "Mark [Tarpenning, a Rocket cofounder] and I have been talking about this ever since it looked like Gemstar would get out of the business," he said. "I still think there's a huge opportunity for e-books."

Eberhard was short on specifics (he said he wanted to be careful not to violate his agreement, out of fear that Gemstar might sue him and claim his ideas), but thought that e-textbooks and educational publishing were his likeliest starting point. "On the technology side, there's no one doing anything interesting with electronic textbooks, as far as I know," he said. Textbooks would be fertile, he said, because publishers might be more amenable to supply content and because students might be more willing than the general public to buy a nonpaper book. Eberhard now works for a company called Pocket Design, a computer networking firm.

One thing Eberhard won't do is buy Gemstar's e-book assets himself: "It would be easier to start a company from scratch than [to do something] with the remains of e-books there."