So, I’m part of Holly Lisle’s email list. Today, I received an announcement from her that she was pulling her books from Apple’s iBookstore because of a new agreement Apple has drafted for users of its software.
Considering the implications, it’s a really lousy agreement. Read about it here, here, oh, and this is Holly Lisle’s announcement that led me to the other two articles.
I’m more than a little amazed. I knew Apple liked to be all proprietary and everything but this is stunning. This goes beyond anything else I’ve seen and seems to be in the opposite direction I thought software was heading.
The reason I find this so interesting is because I’ll be offering my story through Smashwords. They provide a copy of my books to Apple for distribution, if I select it and make it into their Premium Catalog. Does that mean I’ve bypassed the EULA? I’m pretty sure it does. And I’ll be using Meatgrinder for the conversion, so it’s not like I’ll be using their software to format anything. At least, I don’t think so. But should I keep my story out of Apple’s hands out of principle? Because this is a pretty nasty little clause. I don’t think it’s fair for Apple to demand that anything created on their software be exclusive to them if you plan on selling it.
What do you think?
Update: Holly Lisle has announced she was wrong. I still don’t like the EULA, even after reading some of the explanations, but I’m not going to keep my stories (once I send them to Smashwords) from iBookstore because of it. The EULA doesn’t affect me (and probably never will) so I’m going forward with my original plan to use as many channels as I can to distribute.
Amy Keeley 
The Apple agreement sounds horrible. I would steer clear.
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Thanks. I think I’ll be fine if I go through Smashwords. I think I’d need to talk to a qualified lawyer for anything else. I think.
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