I don't know that they tried to "hide" it. That's reading a lot of inflammatory brouhaha into the situation. I read EULAs every time I consider using software for actual 'for pay' production, and I saw these terms and conditions immediately. If you choose to do business without reading the terms and conditions of use of software you use for the process, you will eventually get burned.
Another way to say what this EULA means—and remember that I am not a lawyer and can only speak for myself: The "iBooks Author" software is a tool to create Works (by Apple's definition of the term) to be distributed free of charge or marketed/sold through the iBookstore. If you intend to use it for the latter purpose, Apple owns the exclusive rights to authorize and distribute the Works you submit for sale. The converse complement is that if you want to produce a Work and have full control to distribute it as you please—for free or for pay, on your website or through a publisher, or even through the iBookstore—the iBooks Author software is the wrong tool to choose for that purpose. So why use the iBooks Author software? Because it offers specific features that you might want to take advantage of which other software does not, and because Apple will provide product testing, curating, distribution, marketing, and payment collection services—for which they obtain a fee per copy sold—if you choose to sell the Work. It's a business decision akin to signing a book contract with a publisher on an exclusive basis, with the added bonus in that if you don't want to sell your work, you can distribute it freely without Apple's involvement at all, and you can transform it into a more industry generic form and still sell it any other way you wish. That's what I understand this EULA to be saying. I could easily be wrong, but if this is the case I don't see what all the brouhaha is all about. Other than that everyone really wants to use the software and are pissed off that they can't use it and do whatever else they please with it. ;-) G On Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 8:07 AM, John Sessoms <[email protected]> wrote: > From: Stan Halpin > > >> Sorry Igor, I have seen that thread and several other discussions in >> the last day or two. And I still don't get what the issue is. > > > If I understand it there are three things: > > 1. If you are doing work to sell, you may *only* sell it through the Apple > iBooks store and Apple takes a substantial cut. > > 2. Apple gets to decide what books get sold through the iBooks store. If > they don't select your work to be sold through the iBook store, you are not > allowed to sell it elsewhere. > > 3. Apple tried to hide that 'gator in the swampland section of the EULA. > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. -- Godfrey godfreydigiorgi.posterous.com -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
