What's happened is that 10.3 has screwed up Java on your machine. Check by calling up Terminal and typing java -version. If no java version comes up but an error message does, this confirms the problem.

What you need to do is this:

1) Go to /System/Library/Frameworks and rename the directory JavaVM.framework to JavaVM.framework.off (so you have a backup in case anything screws up).

2) Reinstall Panther, but Customize it so that you only install the Essential System Software

Panther will think that you don't have Java and will reinstall the JavaVM.framework directory. Once installation is complete, test to see that java is there by calling up Terminal again and typing java -version and you should see Java 1.4.1 being returned as the version.

Readerware should work properly now. You can now delete JavaVM.framework.off.