"This Is Apple At Its Absolute Worst: It Thinks It Owns Any Book You Make Through iBooks" by Steve Kovach

mattpoststhings:

“In addition to announcing new textbooks for iPad, Apple also released a new free Mac App that lets you create and publish your own books for sale in the iBooks store. It’s called iBooks Author.

It seems like a neat tool. Until you read the user agreement.

Dan Wineman pointed out on his blog that Apple’s End User License Agreement (EULA) states that books made with the iBook Author app and sold through the iBook store can’t be sold anywhere else.

However, if you offer your book for free in the iBooks store, then you can distribute it for free anywhere else you want.”

Oh Apple, you worthless fucks.

futuramb: As demand for e-books soars, libraries struggle to stock their virtual shelves - The Washington Post Publishers are also struggling to cope with vast changes in the industry, as brick-and-mortar stores such as Borders go under and online vendors such as Amazon have started selling e-books for far less than the print editions. “It is a fluid and dynamic time, and many publishers are reevaluating their business model as it relates to retail and libraries,” said David Burleigh, a spokesman for OverDrive Inc., which serves as an intermediary between publishers and libraries. In the short term, libraries may not be able to meet customer demand for e-books, he said. It is becoming increasingly clear that the major enemies threatening the future of the library are the publishers: When the technology driven competition step by step is hitting the publishers and reducing their revenues, the publishers will pass on those losses to the only ones who the lowest bargaining power - the libraries. When the publishers then is forced to reinnovate their business models as well as their offerings in order to secure their revenues - the libraries will most likely to be seen as a hurdle on their path to the customers who they will try to reach with a broader, more sophisticated and more interactive offerings around stories and worlds rather than just the sale of physical books.
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futuramb:

As demand for e-books soars, libraries struggle to stock their virtual shelves - The Washington Post

Publishers are also struggling to cope with vast changes in the industry, as brick-and-mortar stores such as Borders go under and online vendors such as Amazon have started selling e-books for far less than the print editions.

“It is a fluid and dynamic time, and many publishers are reevaluating their business model as it relates to retail and libraries,” said David Burleigh, a spokesman for OverDrive Inc., which serves as an intermediary between publishers and libraries.

In the short term, libraries may not be able to meet customer demand for e-books, he said.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the major enemies threatening the future of the library are the publishers:

  • When the technology driven competition step by step is hitting the publishers and reducing their revenues, the publishers will pass on those losses to the only ones who the lowest bargaining power - the libraries.
  • When the publishers then is forced to reinnovate their business models as well as their offerings in order to secure their revenues - the libraries will most likely to be seen as a hurdle on their path to the customers who they will try to reach with a broader, more sophisticated and more interactive offerings around stories and worlds rather than just the sale of physical books.
    • Will Apple launch a sort of GarageBand for e-books? “That’s what we believe you’re about to see,” MacInnis told Ars (and our other sources agree). “Publishing something to ePub is very similar to publishing web content. Remember iWeb? That iWeb code didn’t just get flushed down the toilet—I think you’ll see some of [that code] repurposed.

    Ars Technica on Apple’s textbook event this week.

    My hopes for this announcement, if it is a “GarageBand for eBooks”:

    1. It’s free
    2. It’s not just for text books
    3. It is able to tie into a boilerplate Newsstand app, allowing publishers to more easily layout periodical content in a standard way (the divergence between Newsstand apps is unnecessary and frustrating)
    4. Textbooks are published into a textbook ecosystem, with unified notes, book collections for courses managed by instructors, and interactive quizzes built into books allowing students to take short exams and instructors to grade easily from an iPad.

    I think 2 will eventually pan out, but 3 is wishful thinking. 4 would be a game changer, but would require massive commitments from major universities to catch on. Teachers I know would like such an ecosystem (I would have liked it as a student), but it may be a hinderance to adoption and is probably best saved for later.

    (via dbreunig)

    (via dbreunig)

    Books arranged on your bookshelves don’t care what store they came from. But on tablets and smartphones, the shelves are divided by app — you can’t see all the e-books you own from various vendors, all in one place.

    5 Reasons Why E-Books Aren’t There Yet | Epicenter | Wired.com (via adora)

    Psst, adora: Why Wired Is Wrong About eBooks

    (via adora)