iBooks Author - authors rights

How about not using this Apple software to publish eBooks if retaining rights to one's work(s) is important?

Or are you looking to simply discuss the right and/or wrongs of this action by Apple?

The juries still out.

Someone off this forum has just told me that the warnings are not true. That Apple does NOT own the content of the text but they do have rights to the layout/format of it. So that if you used their format to create the ebook, you are free to take the content/text of it but not their design with you.

This would make sense.

I had received the earlier warning and may have passed it on too soon. I'm not a lawyer and don't pretend to know the legalese of the situation. My initial intent in posting this was to pass on the initial warning I received. Sorry for posting it if it's not true -- but Caveat emptor - I for one will check into this more before deciding whether or not to use or promote the software.

If anyone has looked into this issue indepth - would appreciate your findings.

I have been using iBooks Author and have looked a bit into the EULA controversy.

iBooks Author isn't a program for writing books. It assumes you have written your book already in Pages or Word or something else and are importing that text into Author only to specifically format a book in the ".ibooks" format -- probably for sale in the iBookstore. It helps to think of iBooks Author only as a "formatting" application, not a content creation application. It formats your book for the iBookstore.

Apple appears to want exclusivity on all commercial ".ibooks" format books, period. There's only one consumer device that can display this format -- the iPad. And, as far as I know, there is only one commercial marketplace for books in that specific format: the iBookstore/iTunes Store. Basically, Apple wants to maintain both quality control and (obviously) sales commissions on everything that ends up on the iPad.

You still own your content and can publish it anywhere you want in any other form. You can even output a PDF from iBooks Author, and Apple appears not to make any claim on that PDF.

However, what you can't do (according to the EULA, at least) is offer your book in the ".ibooks" format for sale independently on, say, your own website. Apple doesn't mind if free iBooks end up on people's iPads that way, but it wants any sales of iBooks to happen exclusively through Apple.

It it unknown if:

1) Apple would be stupid enough to go after an author for selling his own iBook on his own website. Negative publicity is almost certain if they were to do something this foolish.

2) If Apple could win that legal action. Courts generally frown on End User License Agreement provisions that shock the conscience. Companies can't actually stick anything in there (naming rights to your firstborn son, etc.) and expect it to hold up in court.

After using iBooks Author extensively over the past week to create an educational product, I can understand why Apple is greedily trying to keep control of this territory. There is nothing quite like the iBooks format. You can merge text, photos and video seamlessly. Whatever is the right way to present the information/instruction, that's what you can use. And the user experiences it all literally with a touch of her finger.

Imagine you're reading a book, and right there on the page is a video. You tap on it, and you're watching a video that perfectly explains the point the text just made. That's the iBooks format, and I think it is going to be very popular once creators start using it right.

Thank you BrianF for your thorough and enlightening post. I will look into iBooks further now. I appreciate the information.

No problem.

I should add -- in the real world, I think the most likely sanction Apple would use against an author is simply banning him/her from the iBookstore.

In other words:

1) You publish your iBook on the iBookstore.

2) In violation of the EULA, you also make it available for purchase as an iBook on your own site (or other sites).

3) Apple finds out and just quietly removes your book(s) from the iBookstore.

This would give Apple a lot less bad-publicity exposure than suing an author.

If this ends up being the reality, the question for authors is whether revenue from the iBookstore is likely to be greater than revenue from all other iBooks sales combined.

Another consideration is the headaches involved with selling an iBook outside the Apple ecosystem. It's not like selling a PDF. iBooks don't currently work on PCs. So you'd have to help your customer get the iBook onto his/her iPad. I would not relish being responsible for that tech support. For its 30% cut, Apple handles all of that for you -- delivery of an up to 2 GB file, installation on the iPad, and any help the customer may need.

While I think Apple's EULA is over-reaching and borderline scummy, I can't actually think of where I would want to sell an iBooks-formatted file except at the iBookstore.

This is a caveat - "Once the e-book is ready, authors need to connect an iPad to their computers to proof and debug the title. Once complete, they can submit it to Apple's iBooks store." ~ Apple's new iBooks Author targets e-book creators | The Digital Home - CNET News

So if you don't have an ipad - you may have to borrow one to complete the process.

As for Apple's 30% cut - is there any other fee when the your iBook'd ebook sells in the iTunes store? If not, then you are getting 70% royalty. So what's the diff between that and Kindle's royalty options?

Can you submit free books to the apple store