iBooks Author works limited to commercial distribution on iPad through iBookstore
While Apple's free new iBooks Author publishing app generates what appears to be a modified EPUB format, Apple's licensing terms for the app restrict commercial distribution of the ebooks it creates solely to the iBookstore. Noncommercial, free distribution of ebooks and PDFs is not restricted in any way.
This has generated a minor controversy, with critics claiming that Apple's business model would be akin to Microsoft restricting what users can do with their Word documents. However, there has long been licensing restrictions that artificially limit how software can be used.
Microsoft, for example, licenses its Windows Server and Exchange software on a per-user and/or per machine basis, while a variety of end user content creation apps, including Adobe's, offer a free version limited to producing non-commercial work or low cost versions aimed solely for use in education.
iBooks off the iPad?
In Apple's case, the company is offering free development and deployment apps and the iBookstore service in hopes of generating content that adds value to its iPad hardware. Apple appears to have reason to be concerned that third parties might try to resell textbooks and other ebooks for use on other platforms or in stores that compete with iTunes.
While it would not appear to be difficult to reverse engineer an ebook reader capable of loading and displaying titles created with iBooks Author (given that the output is based on standards ranging from H.264 video to HTML, CSS and JavaScript code), without a paid business model it is hard to imagine how such a project would ever be completed.
So, while Apple doesn't appear to do anything to make content generated by iBooks Author incapable of working outside of iPad's new iBooks 2 app, there is a significant barrier of practicality given that Apple restricts firms using its free authoring tool from creating work they could sell through other markets or on other platforms.
Carrots rather than sticks
Under the clause "Distribution of your Work," the iBooks Author End User Licensing Agreement states: "As a condition of this License and provided you are in compliance with its terms, your Work may be distributed as follows:
(i) if your Work is provided for free (at no charge), you may distribute the Work by any available means;
(ii) if your Work is provided for a fee (including as part of any subscription-based product or service), you may only distribute the Work through Apple and such distribution is subject to the following limitations and conditions: (a) you will be required to enter into a separate written agreement with Apple (or an Apple affiliate or subsidiary) before any commercial distribution of your Work may take place; and (b) Apple may determine for any reason and in its sole discretion not to select your Work for distribution."
This effectively means that while anyone can use iBooks Author to create content that can subsequently be used any way they like, if the ebooks are sold, they must get Apple's permission to sell them outside of the iBookstore.
Ignoring Apple's license would likely result in rejection of the author's work in iBookstore, the biggest available market for the work. This would extinguish any potential for a publisher to "add" side sales of its iBooks Author-created ebooks to a third party such as Amazon (which restricts the formats it accepts for distribution and wouldn't accept Apple's files anyway) or a third party store selling ebooks to Android or Windows 8 tablets, for example.
However, Apple's EULA does not appear to block the free distribution of titles for any use, including the distribution of limited functionality PDF copies or the distribution of full ebooks (something that would require a specialized ebook reader capable of rendering them).
Additionally, content authored in iBooks Author could largely be reformatted into a basic EPUB format or other file type, such as Amazon's KF8, and redistributed without complaint from Apple. However, such works would also lack the multitouch features and dynamic widgets that iBooks Author makes it easy to incorporate into its own titles.
Comments
You want to publish on the iBooks Store? Great! We'll even give you wonderful software to help for free.
Makes sense.
You want to publish anywhere? Pay for the software. You have plenty of options.
You want to publish on the iBooks Store? Great! We'll even give you wonderful software to help for free.
Makes sense.
My thoughts as well. When using various software libraries and tool sets (Unreal for example), it is not uncommon for non-commercial use to have different strings when compared to commercial use.
You can still export to PDF et al and do whatever you want...
Not a problem for me... Competition is good... This new model may or may not prevail in the marketplace, but let's skip the 'controvery', shall we? Controversial to whom? The self-assigned overlords of the Internet?
C'mon, folks!
You want to publish anywhere? Pay for the software. You have plenty of options.
You want to publish on the iBooks Store? Great! We'll even give you wonderful software to help for free.
Makes sense.
Agreed. But there will be haters that will scream anti-trust and everything else they can think of.
You want to publish anywhere? Pay for the software. You have plenty of options.
You want to publish on the iBooks Store? Great! We'll even give you wonderful software to help for free.
Makes sense.
Agreed.
I saw ealier that Cult of Mac thinks it's absurd that the iBook Authoring tool requires you to have an iPad to preview how your content will actually look and feel on an iPad.
It just seems logical to me that if you were creating books for iPad, you would want to have an iPad to test and preview your work before distributing it...
Simulators are ok, but wouldn't an actual iPad be better?
Agree with all here that Apple is not doing anything wrong. But I do wonder - would publishers not desire an app that allows them to create contents once and be able to distribute thru most if not all channels? When some other app comes along that's compatible with Amazon as well as iBooks, iBook Author might not be so appealing anymore.
There is no limitation on the PDF output of iBook Author. Of course there would be no dynamic content.
Simulators are ok, but wouldn't an actual iPad be better?
Particularly when the simulators don't simulate RAM.
Make an app. Runs perfectly on the iPhone simulator. Crashes instantaneously on your iPhone because it's using 210 MB of RAM and your phone only has 128.
Ah, life.
You want to publish anywhere? Pay for the software. You have plenty of options.
You want to publish on the iBooks Store? Great! We'll even give you wonderful software to help for free.
Makes sense.
perfect!
However, Apple's EULA does not appear to block the free distribution of titles for any use, including the distribution of limited functionality PDF copies or the distribution of full ebooks (something that would require a specialized ebook reader capable of rendering them).
I have not had the chance to play with the new software yet but it was my understanding from another poster that Author can export to a .ibook file format that can be viewed on an iPad. How you get this file on the iPad was not explained. Can you sync it through iTunes? Can you view it from an email attachment or download from a website? Is the .ibook file full featured with all the original interactivity? If that is the case it would seem that you don't need another specialized ebook reader.
I have not had the chance to play with the new software yet but it was my understanding from another poster that Author can export to a .ibook file format that can be viewed on an iPad. How you get this file on the iPad was not explained. Can you sync it through iTunes?
When you click the Preview button, the application asks you to have your iPad plugged in and iBooks open.
Which I found interesting and odd.
It's not required, it seems, as the iPad syncs the file over (which is given a purple "Proof" banner), opens it automatically, and it's viewable as any other book would be.
Is the .ibook file full featured with all the original interactivity?
Of? the? I'm not sure what you're asking here.
Of… the… I'm not sure what you're asking here.
I am not sure what the various export options are. If you can export to a .ibook file on your Mac then do something about trying to get the file onto an iPad does it work? Not just preview actually copy the file.
I am not sure what the various export options are. If you can export to a .ibook file on your Mac then do something about trying to get the file onto an iPad does it work? Not just preview actually copy the file.
I wouldn't imagine it would, but that's me. Too busy working properly with this new .ibook file of mine to test it out.
I wouldn't imagine it would, but that's me. Too busy working properly with this new .ibook file of mine to test it out.
Thanks for taking the time to reply. I am only asking because it would be a proper way to create a document and then have my editor be able to review and markup the document without having to come over to my office and read it on my iPad which is connected to my Mac. You know? Properly writing and editing a professional manuscript with a proper work flow, not just fooling around with a new toy.
You want to publish anywhere? Pay for the software. You have plenty of options.
You want to publish on the iBooks Store? Great! We'll even give you wonderful software to help for free.
Makes sense.
The only problem is that right now it's the only app to generate the books - once Adobe InDesign and other apps have an 'export' for this format then it'll be fine.
I seriously doubt that all the existing textbook publishers are going to manually cut and paste their books into this new app - they'll want to generate the book from their existing tools. Anyone know what the most popular textbook publishing apps are? Framemaker, InDesign? Any sign that there are 'preview' versions of a converter/export plugin yet?
Additionally, content authored in iBooks Author could largely be reformatted into a basic EPUB format or other file type, such as Amazon's KF8, and redistributed without complaint from Apple. However, such works would also lack the multitouch features and dynamic widgets that iBooks Author makes it easy to incorporate into its own titles.
This is the key point. Obviously some third parties will create programs that will import the .ibook and will likely convert it and the multimedia type features into other formats. Adobe created a FLASH to HTML converter and a FLASH to app converter and Apple banished submission of apps that used the latter from what I remember.
So the question will be that if someone like Adobe or Amazon creates a converter/reformatter that basically keeps the interactive features while allowing the work to be reused in other Ebook readers and formats, will Apple pull the book from their own book store.
Anyone know what the most popular textbook publishing apps are? Framemaker, InDesign? Any sign that there are 'preview' versions of a converter/export plugin yet?
Believe it or not I think Quark on PC is still the most widely used platform for large document publishing. Famemaker was popular for scientific manuals for a while but I don't think it is as much now days. inDesign originally had issues with really large documents, so it was slow to make it into the book publishing world that largely relies on servers and database connectivity for which there are third party Quark extensions available. Not sure how much things have changed in the industry since I haven't been involved in that side of the business for a few years. In my office we use inDesign for everything so that would be my focus as this Apple proprietary file format becomes more widespread.