The web has seen much, much discussion over the past few days about Apple's new iBooks Author software, particularly its terms of use. Some people seem to think Apple is being greedy, locking content developers into doing business with Apple, and even that Apple is stealing their intellectual property.
My own opinion is that Apple has, by investing much talent and money, developed an ecosystem for the publishing and distribution of various media. This ecosystem includes not only the iTunes store, but also the iOS devices that use the content. So they have added to this ecosystem a new, PROPRIETARY way of authoring books. if you choose to adopt Apple's PROPRIETARY tools and formats, this gives you access to cutting edge iBook features, and to a hugely successful distribution channel, and to a huge installed base of iOS devices. It seems very unreasonable, when other authoring environments exist, to feel that if YOU AGREE to Apple's terms and conditions, Apple is stealing anything? If you don't like the terms, then don't use the tools! You can still use other authoring tools, then use Apple's distribution channel and have access to Apple's installed base of iOS devices. Anyway, please take a look at these three articles - they say it much better than me. The comments after the articles are especially enlightening. http://www.cultofmac.com/141832/why-the-emotional-criticism-of-ibooks-author-is-wrong/ http://www.cultofmac.com/141566/ibooks-author-you-can-sell-your-work-elsewhere-just-not-in-the-format-created-by-ibooks-author-opinion/ http://photofocus.com/2012/01/21/a-new-way-for-photographers-to-self-publish/ Enjoy! Jim _______________________________________________ iPhone-talk mailing list [email protected] http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/listinfo/iphone-talk
