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Selling a book with Apple’s iBook Author program is now a one-way ticket to Apple being the only place you can sell the book. Maybe selling your book on iBooks isn’t such a great deal after all.
Dan Wineman of Venomous Porridge went to publish his first book from within the iBooks Author application when he was met with a curious notice. Once a book is made available for sale in the iBookstore, it can only be sold through that venue.
A quick look at the iBooks Author EULA reconfirms the dialog box’s diabolical message:
(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.
Ugh, the worst part is that you never agree to anything when you install the application. The EULA never appears when you install. Apparently, you implicitly agree to the EULA simply by using the software. If you’ve worked for weeks on a book only to discover you can’t sell it anywhere else once you publish it to the iBookstore, you’re gonna be pissed.
Apple is jumping into the world of publishing here. If you had a deal with Random House to sell your book, you wouldn’t be able to have Penguin Publishing also sell it. These deals, however, are transparent. The restrictions don’t just appear as you prepare to submit your manuscript. Apple is assuming rights over your content in the worst possible way. [Venomous Porridge]
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Those walls around Apple’s garden just got a mighty bit taller.
So the content of the book is yours, but the book itself isn’t?
If I were to use the same content (which I’d created) and build an e-book on another bit of software then would that mean I’d be allowed to sell it on different platforms?
I don’t think there’s anything in that rule that prevents someone from adapting a book for an equivalent platform on an more Android or Kindle friendly format.
It makes sense that you can only sell your book on the iBookstore… the “book” is also using tech that’s only supported on Apple devices anyways, including Keynote.
Am I right, or have I completely misunderstood this legalese?
In Apples EULA, they talk in general term of ‘the Work’, rather than the ibook version – which implies, format irrelevant, they probably own you
Bad times.
Did anybody actually think this was going to work out great for the folks who create the content?
For a brief moment my innocent mind tought it would, I keep forgetting the companies history.
Meant company’s. *looking at Kat and wondering where is my edit button*
It’s a-coming, promise!
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Things like this as well as many other reasons made abandon the Apple a year ago…
I spoke to my better half about this. She’s a fully qualified patent attorney (an intellectual property lawyer) so qualified to comment.
In her, brief, opinion, this sort of clause may hold ‘some’ weight in the US, where this sort of thing is more common, but not so much in Europe.
Apparently in Europe it’s much harder to require people to give away their inherent IP ownership rights, especially if they are not compensated for it, and very especially if it’s just by a EULA. The fact that the EULA is not something specifically agreed to, and is not even displayed, in her opinion renders it completely unenforceable.
Of course that doesn’t mean Apple won’t try, and it will be interesting to see how the ‘use our ecosystem for free, or give us a cut if you want to profit from it’ model will work. It’s quite a good model depending on how you view it.
Can i write my own book? Like from scratch and sell it on itunes then? If so i have some writing to do!