PalmSource division Palm Digital Media has licensed its Palm Retail Encryption Server Software to two German Internet retailers.

The agreements allow envi.con KG of Berlin and mukom, e.K. of Offenburg to create Internet bookstores offering German language editions of Palm Reader eBooks protected by Palm Digital Media's digital rights management technology. The announcement came at the opening of the annual Frankfurt Book Fair, an international marketplace the company said attracts publishers, rights dealers, booksellers, authors and agents from 100 countries and more than 150,000 visitors during its five-day run.

"These companies are on the cutting edge of the European publishing world's expansion into eBooks," said Mike Segroves, director of business development at Palm Digital Media. "They are well-acquainted with the relationships we have forged with the leading U.S. publishing houses, and they are going to use that model to generate German language eBook sales."

Palm Reader eBooks are currently available in English only. Palm Digital Media said the catalog of Palm Reader eBooks offers titles from most major U.S. publishing houses. Palm Reader eBooks can be read on Palm OS handhelds and the portable computing solution Dana by AlphaSmart and Pocket PC handhelds.