Holly Lisle dumps iBooks for cause

[david_e]

.....

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Here's another case of Apple's roughshod and arbitrary approach to running the iBookstore:
http://publishingperspectives.com/20...g+Perspectives)

There is their way and there is the highway.
(shrug)

As it says in the article...

Going global sure isn’t easy.

And I say that's not the case. Going with Apple's iBookstore isn't easy and in some cases, isn't worth the hassle.

[LisaPT]

Apple called Holly Lisle and said they goofed:

http://hollylisle.com/amazing-apple-...ith-the-links/

Her book with the links were always within their TOS.

[murraypaul]

I was very happy. And I need to point out that the Apple representative did not equivocate, weasel-word ANYTHING, or try to shift blame or responsibility. He said, “We were wrong,” and “We made a mistake.”
About five times in the course of the conversation, actually. He was very polite, very professional.
He was, in other words, exactly who I would have expected from my previous dealings with Apple, which have all been as a customer rather than as a content producer.
I’d had no intention of going back, or of putting my work up on Apple again. I’d shut down all my existing material, deleted iTunes Producer from my computer and walked away.
But I’m going back (albeit tentatively), and I’m going to give Apple the chance it’s representative asked for when he said, “We would like you to come back.”

Hey look, a happy ending

[jehane]

Originally Posted by DarkScribe

They are currently being investigated by an Australian Governmental inquiry as to why they add a significant price premium to all of their products sold in Australia.

<snip>

Originally Posted by david_e

So we should rely on the government to establish what is a fair price for goods instead of the open market?

The question is whether it really is an open market. For most physical products, it is entirely possible to purchase an item anywhere in the world at the local price and get it shipped to your location. The internet has made this even easier and certainly in Australia the rate at which people have been purchasing from overseas has grown exponentially in the past few years. Not only is it now easier to see how much cheaper items are overseas, it is also now much easier to purchase items from overseas. [1]

When it comes to digital items such as software, music, books, etc, certain companies deliberately install obstacles to overseas purchases. It costs more to download music from iTunes in Australia than in the US (I'm not much of a music buyer so I don't know the other major retailers). It often costs more to download books from book retailers (Amazon, Kobo, etc) in Australia than the US - including when parallel import restrictions are not in play. It costs more to download software from most providers in Australia than the US - and there are examples of individuals who purchased software while in the US but when they tried to install it in Australia it would not allow the install.

So is it an open market? I don't think so. If it were truly an open market then the consumer should be allowed to purchase from the supplier of their choice, which is clearly not the case for digital products.

It is not a case of the government setting prices - it is a case of the government ensuring that the market is indeed open. Note that Apple is certainly not the only company involved in the inquiry - it is a general inquiry into tech and digital pricing in Australia, but Apple iTunes [2] is one of the bigger names and a popular example.

[1] Note that even with high shipping costs it is still often much cheaper to purchase from overseas and get it shipped, which tells you something about the markup in Australia. For example, a typical MMPB in the US is about USD7.99 - in Australia it is between AUD14.99 to 19.99 - and the AUD is currently trading at about USD1.04. For paper books there are currently parallel import restrictions for bookshops, but not for individual buyers, so not surprisingly local bookshops are dropping like flies while Amazon and Book Depository are doing a roaring trade. Another example - when I was looking to purchase my first ereader in 2010 I spent a lot of time looking through these forums. No major retailers were selling ereaders in Australia at the time. To purchase a Sony PRS-300 from an Australian retailer would have been about AUD495. As I had a holiday planned in the US I waited a couple of months and bought it for USD150. At the time, 1AUD=0.90USD. And yes, I also took home a small suitcase of paperbacks - seriously!

In the case of paper books it is usually (but not always) a function of local publishers. However for many other products (electronics, clothes, sports gear) it is the supplier - a single company - who sets different prices for distributors according to region. In the past, this price differentiation was entirely feasible as markets were not global and it was difficult to purchase items from overseas. With the internet and digital products, many companies are attempting to artificially regionalise the market, and this is where the conflict lies.

[2] Ironically iPods were released to the Australian market about a year or so before an Australian iTunes store was opened, which begs the question of where they thought customers were getting their music...

[ApK]

While I'm usually on the other side of this point, crying foul when people whine that the slightest bit of private selectivity is 'censorship' and needs to sued, stopped by force, bypassed as civil disobedience, taken to the Supreme Court, etc., I think it equally wrong to NOT call this censorship. Governments are NOT the only folks who can censor. TV networks and movie studios censor, people self-censor for propriety and diplomacy all the time.

"Censorship" is not a dirty word, and it's not illegal in this context. Don't be afraid to apply the correct word just because some people jump to extreme conclusions about it's political import.

Don't make it the next "N" word.

The actions by Apple described in the OP were clearly censorship and it's OK to say so. Just understand that the recourse for this kind of censorship (if you disagree with it) would be to shop elsewhere and let the management know why, and maybe even organize a boycott if enough people feel strongly about it. Not to whine about how the Man is putting you down and how it's a violation of your civil rights....

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by jehane

[2] Ironically iPods were released to the Australian market about a year or so before an Australian iTunes store was opened, which begs the question of where they thought customers were getting their music...

In the US, too.
The assumption (and reality) was that *most* users of the early media players would be using the gadgets to supplement their PCs and Home Stereo systems--not replacing them--and thus would be buying their music on CDs and transcoding the songs to MP3/WMA/AAC. (The things go back to the last century and dialup internet access so the widespread piracy of the Napster heyday is a bit more recent.)

Once Apple decided to get into the gadget business they decided they needed to get an installed base of gadgets in place *before* they could convince the media companies to let them sell the music. So they introduced the iPod in Oct 2001 but the iTunes store didn't go live until 2003, 18 moths worth of sales later.

[heySkippy]

I'm sure most early adopters of the iPod, myself included, already had a substantial collection of CDs just waiting to be ripped.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by heySkippy

I'm sure most early adopters of the iPod, myself included, already had a substantial collection of CDs just waiting to be ripped.

That was *all* you could do with it since iTunes didn't allow sideloading at the time. One reason I went with the Rio Riot instead.

Apple has *always* been touchy about what they allow users to upload to *their* systems. (Still on topic! )

[heySkippy]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

That was *all* you could do with it since iTunes didn't allow sideloading at the time.

Ridiculous. There were plenty of sources for MP3 files in 2001, both legal and not so much. I don't even know what "sideloading" is but I never had any trouble dropping an MP3 icon on my iTunes icon which added it to my library.