iBooks Author restricts all sales to iBookstore, wraps for-pay books in DRM

I guess I don’t understand how large organizations are supposed to collaborate on these textbooks? Will there be an iBook Author Server?

Last time I checked Xcode was also a content creation tool which created content for use on ios only devices…you mean I can’t simply put all my iOS code on android directly? How is this news?

So let’s do some math. Say I write a book and sell it for $14.99.
I sell 1,000 copies of this book. I make roughly $15,000.
Apple takes $4,500 of that.
I’m left with $10,500 and can only sell my book through iBooks.
To me I’d rather pay the upfront costs out of pocket instead of 30% out of my sales for a publishing program.
I’m all for DRM with ebooks, the authors work should be protected, 30% just seems a pretty steep price to pay.

It’s nothing like analogous to Photoshop. If you want something comparable, then take a look at, say, video game mods. When you’re not making money from them, you can distribute your mod as much as you want.

If you want to make money from this game, then you’ll need to go ahead and license the game engine. The key difference being that Apple doesn’t do single sum licensing, they do a percentage cut.

I think the issue is that people are looking at this in terms of a software license only not as a publishing agreement. Apple’s providing for free the means to easily layout and create a book and virtually instantly publish to a worldwide audience. I’m pretty sure even Stephen King doesn’t have the right with his publisher to take the book they had a hand in bringing to market anywhere he’d like. This is more than a piece of software, it’s a publishing platform. Old ways of doing business are dying, new paradigms are emerging. This is more than a software license. Apple isn’t claiming ownership to the words or images, just to the specific layout created with their free tool. If it’s truly onerous, authors won’t use it and will either hire a designer to do all the work in a page layout program ($$) or buy and learn a page layout program ($$).

First, it’s chilling to release a content creation tool — even if free — that restrictions the author’s ability to distribute or sell works created with that tool.

Um, how is this different than creating iOS apps in Xcode? Are apps not content?

http://david-smith.org/blog/2012/01/19/ibooks-author-unprecedented/

it would be analogous to “Adobe declaring that if you use Photoshop to export a JPEG, you can’t freely sell it to Getty.”

This analogy would work better if Photoshop didn’t cost $650. And it costs that much for a reason. And that’s because they’re not making money off what you create.

Apple is simply saying you can’t use their free software for profit without paying them. A much better option than paying $650 upfront in my not so humble view. Or do you believe Apple is under some obligation to give away free software so others can make hundreds of millions of dollars, while they themselves only receive thanks and not money?

The effect of the policy is to flat-out prohibit the selling of printed copies of the book.

It’s becoming digital world. Apple is pushing head first into it. Don’t like it, don’t use iBook to make your iBooks. But why Apple should care about printed copies, I have no idea.

Oh and this is a bit incorrect. I’ve read nothing about this policy that stops you from publishing your book. You just can’t use your compiled work in iBooks to publish that book. In other words, I can take my draft from Scrivener, put it in iBooks, publish it in the iBooks store, while also publishing to the Kindle store or in paperback on Lulu or something, as long as I don’t use the compiled version from iBooks. Nothing about iBook’s policy stops me from doing this, I believe.

Secondly, all iBooks made available for sale in the iBookstore are wrapped in Digital Rights Management software that limits their distribution to Apple’s iBooks app, which severely limits the ability to archive, share, or re-sell any for-sale ebook created with the software.

How is this any different than the books already in the iBook, Kindle, Nook, and B&N stores? You’re complaining about something that wasn’t even possible in the first place.

iBooks Author may be a great creation tool for making iBooks, but unless Apple decides to rethink this policy, it is not a great tool for creating ebooks.

Huh? Of course it’s not. Why would or should Apple care about helping users create ebooks for other stores? Do you honestly believe Apple should give away a product for free and allow Amazon and B&N to profit from it?

At the end of the day, Apple views iBooks as apps. Don’t like it, use something else. Last time I checked, you can still create your own ebooks and put them in Apple’s store. And you can still use iBooks for the iBooks store, and another tool for another store. I.E. nothing about this policy means Apple owns the copyright to your work.

My guess is that this policy will be as successful for iBook creators as their App Store policies were for iOS developers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpUNA2nutbk

Here’s how it works in the music industry:
- Songwriter writes a song
- Songwriter gets a record deal
- Songwriter records a song (usually at the expense of the record company)
- The record company owns and sells the recording of the song

We all know that ended well, didn’t it?

So I guess this means the writer owns the content but Apple “owns” the iBook of the content?

If someone creates a book using the iBooks Author, it seems obvious that they would, at a minimum, submit the book to the iBooks store. As such, Apple will get their cut from any content created with and subsequently purchased through the iBooks ecosystem.

That said, to preclude the author from taking the resulting file and potentially submitting it to other book stores just seems plain greedy. But frankly, I would expect nothing less from Apple. It’s in their DNA.

Ok, so I understand the Photoshop analogy isn’t perfect because you have to buy it. But there are obviously many more free services that are used in photo and video editing.

I don’t mean to ask this in a snarky way, but rather than shoot down the photoshop thing like everyone else, can I ask if there has ever been a content creation program that was free that restricted the selling ability like this? I’m honestly asking.

But isn’t this how it works in the book publishing world? If your book is being sold by one publisher, another publisher can’t sell your book at the same time. Basically Apple is a publisher now. I don’t see anything wrong with that.

I am kind of interested in this as I have an online magazine I create and put out in pdf format. People seem to be too dumb to download and view it and get many requests for an “ipad app” By chance will this be put out for Windows?

Many universities have a library that also stocks eBooks. Many publishers who participate in eBooks allow the student to buy a copy (often a physical copy) for a discounted price if their institution has paid for the eBook lending service.

If I was Apple, I’d look into eLibraries for educational institutions…

iBooks CAN’T be viewed on other devices. Shut up.

iBooks 2 is currently the only application that properly views the iBook format, which supports elaborate animation, 3D models, video, image galleries, etc. Shut up.

If you want your book viewable on another device/store/whatever. Do it yourself or convince your friends at “Wherever” to develop their own publishing tool and book store. And shut up.

Holy shit! You have to use our free tools only for our service … because we are kinda company and we have to make money … I’m shocked! /s

I’m sorry, but this is a silly article intended to create some faux ‘controversy’ and ‘outrage’.

Did you notice what the name of the creation software? It’s not ‘ebook Author’, it’s ‘iBook author’. I mean.. I didn’t even think there was ambiguity there. The tool, just like the iOS SDK is to create apps for iOS devices, is to create books for the iPad- not for every device under the sun. It’s clearly optimized and compatible with only the iPad, for obvious reasons. There’s nothing ‘chilling’ about this, nor about restricting sale of content created with this tool.

Also, the analogy to photoshop is insanely ridiculous. First of all, photoshop is a $600 tool. Ibooks author is free. Secondly, jpegs are a standard format that can be viewed on pretty much any device with a screen. The file spit out by iBooks author are complex, contain interactivity, and and custom formats made to take advantage of iPad capabilities. Again, a silly, thoughtless analogy that reaches hard to create some sort of false equivalence, and false controversy. I assumed the Verge was above this. I guess not. I don’t plan to use this tool or buy any itextbooks, yet this article was extremely silly.

I think you should make it more clear that Apple aren’t stopping anyone from issuing other editions of the book. You are forbidden from selling printed copies but if you’ve used iBooks Author properly in the least, a printed copy would be unusable. Ditto for non-iPad e-reader editions.

Buying specific hardware to access a certain piece of “free” software is so ’80s. Unfortunately it works very well for Apple. Software lock-in is better(more versatile, can be cheaper as in OS or proprietary) than Software AND hardware lock-in that Apple promotes.

Hope they fail at their hardware lock-in, hope they win at dropping prices for textbooks overall while improving them.

It is clear that loads of replies here are wrong.

Apple say that if you have content, you own original content, if you sell it in their store then you are not allowed to sell it anywhere else.So apple effectively own your content and control its sale and distribution in the world. It’s like selling your soul to the devil…

Verge, I am not-disappoint. Hard to explain this in a fair way without being trollbait, think you’ve done the best I’ve seen.

Like others… I don’t really see the comparison to Photoshop > Jpeg… when Photoshop costs a shit-load of money… and the iBooks Author program is completely free…
It’s more like if a blog-publishing website came out with some awesome tools for you to use for their website… free of charge as incentive to publish on their site…. you wouldn’t expect them to let them use those free tools to publish on any other site… it kills the incentive…

I think allowing you to export and distribute in epub format is plenty enough…. and very reasonable…

You aren’t held hostage to prepare textbooks in iBooks Author. What pisses me off is the way people are reading the restrictions and thinking that the only application they will be able to prepare the book in is iBooks Author.

What will really happen
Author writes book in a text editor. Gives text to a publisher. Publisher uses iBooks Author for the iPad version of textbook and InDesign for Kindle/Nook/print versions.

The iPad version can support more media, but still has the same words.

The content of your book still belongs to you, Apple is only talking about the final output format. I am astounded how knee-jerk and extremely misunderstood the reaction to this has been around the web today.

You can drop the final result onto BBEdit and open it easily, and yet you claim it’s wrapped in DRM?

Is the Zip wrapper a pretty confusing notion for the tech-savvy headline writers at The Verge? Or is this article yet another step towards simple outrage whoring?

Say what you want about the EULA terms, but they ain’t DRM. The headline is pure FUD.

I am just waiting for the verge to make magazines for iPad

The headline and in fact the whole article is borderline baiting.
Adobe Photoshop costs $700 so that argument is totally ridiculous.
I had high hopes for the Verge, Dieter you should do much better than this.

Most authors prefer to write their books one time. This app is awesome IMO. But it would be nice to sell on all platforms without having to make a version for each one. Apple gets their money back for the app every time an author sell an iBook. I am not complaining, just saying that it would be awesome to use one program to write a book for all platforms.

Why can’t I sell my $100 textbook in 7 $14.99 sections and make a little extra (ok minus my 30%) and my students (I have no students) who are lazy can by just what they will study from. And maybe sell the introduction section to more people than who take my class. And if there is a particularly interesting section from my lecture I could have that added.
Well that’s the first thing that came to mind and haven’t seen anyone mention that on either of the websites about iBook author.