Today Apple released its new iBooks Author software, a free authoring tool to allow writers to create books for iOS devices such as the iPad. Sounds nice, but there’s a little catch hidden (and I do mean hidden) in the EULA. Books - in Apple’s new proprietary format - created using the tool may only be sold through Apple’s iBookstore.
I don’t like proprietary formats and lock-ins. I resist buying books from Amazon because their engineered lock-in forces you to read the books in Amazon’s Kindle software, which isn’t as good as some other e-readers (such as Stanza, which Amazon bought to kill). Given my choice, I’d rather buy books in the open and widely-supported ePub format. I’d like to see everyone follow the lead of O’Reilly, who offer their titles in 4 or 5 formats, unprotected by DRM, and trust in the honesty of their buyers.
I’d hoped that we might move in that direction, and that before long I’d be able to buy books from the vendor of my choice in the format of my choice and read them with the reader of my choice.
Apple, it seems, may have other ideas.
