Booktype: An Open Source, Cross-Platform Approach To E-Book Publishing 87
Posted
by
timothy
from the no-presses-to-stop dept.
from the no-presses-to-stop dept.
Despite Apple's protestation that the iBooks Author EULA was misinterpreted, the idea of a book publishing system that could be used to grab copyright of the prepared text is annoying — like the sort of EULAs that seem to give photo-sharing sites unlimited re-use rights of hosted personal photos. New submitter rohangarg points out a publishing system which shouldn't have such problems, and is nicely cross-platform besides: "A new open-source digital writing and publishing platform has been launched by non-profit group Sourcefabric. Booktype allows for collaborative editing and writing of books that can be easily outputted to on-demand print services and eReaders such as the Amazon Kindle, Nook, iPad, and more with a few simple clicks. Booktype source can be found here."
The online demo also leads to some downloadable examples (as PDFs).
The Slash Fanfic People Will Love This... (Score:2, Funny)
Actions speak louder than words (Score:4, Funny)
Despite Apple's protestation that the iBooks Author EULA was misinterpreted
Apparently the summary's author hadn't heard that Apple responded to the complaints by changing the license [macrumors.com] so that it was clear they were not making the claims they had been accused of making. They didn't just "protest" and claim people misinterpreted the license. They corrected the problem. Clearly this was a case of Apple...
CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE!
1) If you think Apple is evil, skip to paragraph A
2) If you think Apple is good, skip to paragraph B
PARAGRAPH A
Clearly this was a case of Apple engaging in some slick PR after getting caught red-handed. It's our job to stay vigilant, and open formats are the way to go since we can't trust Apple or their kind.
PARAGRAPH B
Clearly this was a case of Apple making an honest mistake or having an overzealous lawyer adding some boilerplate language that could be taken other than how it was intended. They've shown a willingness to correct these sorts of mistakes in the past, and we can trust them to do so again in the future.