January 2012
6 posts
5 tags
Intent Doesn’t Matter
John Gruber wagers that Apple doesn’t mean what it says in the iBooks Author EULA:
I’m willing to bet cold hard cash that Apple has no intention to and will never try to stop a publisher or author from taking content written in iBooks Author and publishing it elsewhere in another format. No one will ever hear from Apple after exporting from iBooks Author to text or PDF.
But I think...
2 tags
Why I like shopping at the corner store
Customer: Is that Etta James you’re playing?
Clerk: You bet. All Etta, all day long. It’s Friday, girl!
Customer: Nice tribute. It’s so sad that she died.
Clerk: She DIED?
5 tags
Common Misconceptions about What I Wrote Yesterday
In a probably-futile attempt to stem the tide of redundant comments, I’ll address some of the more frequent reactions to my last post:
If you don’t like it, don’t use it! Duh.
You’re missing the point. The issue is that this is a software EULA which for the first time attempts to restrict what I can do with the output of the app, rather than with the app itself. No...
But It’s Free
Watts Martin:
So Apple’s “audacity” is that they’ve created a snazzy creation tool that, from all appearances, only works with their viewers. Wineman is correct in that it’s the license, not the technology, that prevents you from taking a .ibooks file and selling it somewhere other than Apple’s store. But you don’t have much reason to sell something this thing creates outside Apple’s store,...
5 tags
The Unprecedented Audacity of the iBooks Author...
Apple just released iBooks Author, a free Mac app for creating digital books for the new version of iBooks. I haven’t played with it much, but so far it looks like a very good tool. However, a curious thing happens when you go to export your work in iBooks format:
This restriction — that iBooks can be sold only in the iBookstore — isn’t enforced on a technical level. You can save...
