[bhartman36]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

And I thought it was a rhetorical question.

No question is truly rhetorical unless you don't allow the other person to respond.

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

But apparently some people would rather deprive schoolkids of textbooks than allow them to have textbooks on a platform they dislike.

This isn't about the platform. It's about the software being used to supply the platform. That's not a small difference.

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

Well, it is authoring software designed to create iBooks. Not e-books. Which are only available for iDevices now.

It's a dressed-up ePub. There's no reason the content (outside of the DRM wrapper) shouldn't be portable to any other device, the same way you can take an e-book and package it for Kindle or Nook or Sony. The thing Apple did was create software to make the file. The file itself isn't magical (despite what Apple wants you to believe.)

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

True. You can also use Kindle Apps. Big difference.

Huge difference. It means the Kindle books can be used on any Android device, or any PC, or any Mac, for that matter (including iDevices).

But there's an even bigger difference: Amazon doesn't stake a claim on your content. Publishing through the Kindle storefront doesn't mean you have to forego publishing anywhere else unless you specifically sign up for the Kindle Select program for that work.

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

Yes, Snidely Whiplash was always writing textbooks for children before tying the woman to the railroad tracks.

I think you misunderstand how this works. Apple isn't writing anything other than the software which allows authors to produce in the iBooks store. Apple isn't writing a single textbook.

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

Second - "evil?" Seriously "evil?" I don't think you know what the word means.

What else would you call a Faustian bargain not even Microsoft has the balls to pull on people? Last time I checked, producing something in Word or Excel didn't give Microsoft any rights to the work product. Okay, Word and Excel aren't free, but neither do you have to make such a bargain to use OpenOffice Writer or Calc.

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

Here's a free product you can use to create iBooks. If you use the program to create free iBooks, you can distribute it however you want. If you are going to charge for the iBook, you need to sell the book through iTunes.

That's correct. But as I said, who else would even dare to try such a stunt with a straight face?

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

Sorry, that just doesn't meet the test of evil. If authors don't want to use the product, they're free not to.

For now. I mean, you understand what the endgame is here, right? Apple makes deals with schools so that only iPads (or their successors) are used in said schools. At that point, Apple locks it down and says you have to use iBooks Author to produce textbooks for the iPad.

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

Just as they would be free to not use a product that cost too much. (And it's not evil to charge for software, either).

I never made that claim. What is evil is to stick into a EULA (you know -- that thing that most people just click through?) terms that are so draconian that no other software publisher would be able to stomach them.

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

(I may be wrong, but I also don't think that the program will be very successful...while I think that e-textbooks will (eventually) be the future, I don't think that the interactive part of the textbooks is much more than a gimmick. (It's a little more than a gimmick, but not a lot more.) It's cool that you can see a DNA strand rotate...but when it comes down to what HS kids learn about DNA in biology, the rotation won't cause them to actually learn any more than they would from a color picture.

I could be wrong, too, but I don't think it matters how much more kids will learn. A lot of schools seem to view technology as magic that will instantaneously increase their test scores without any additional effort by the teachers. Give them some eye candy, and I'm sure they'll bite.