I don't know if it costs anything to sell a book in the iBookstore, but to sell on the App Store, one needs to pay the $99 annual program fee.
Suppose there is an annual fee to join the iBookstore. Would there be a different reaction to this EULA if Author was hidden behind that "paywall"? Or what if Apple just charged $99 for this app instead of making it free?
The reason everyone is so upset about the EULA is that Apple filled a huge void in the eBook creation software market and Apple filled that void but is rightfully limiting the tool for their own benefit. Everyone was hoping Apple would swoop in an create an awesome tool for making eBooks, but instead they made an awesome tool for making iBooks. Are non-iBook creators worse off today than they were a week ago? Nope.
A better solution (from a PR standpoint, not from a technical standpoint) would have been for Apple to make Author output a proprietary format. After all, no one is crying out because Xcode can't produce Android binaries or standards-compliant webpages. Still, an open format is the best solution for this type of product. You don't want authors having to learn how to cryptographically sign their books or be able to generate ad hoc builds just to get a book to a student. Apple is enforcing DRM at the EULA level rather than at the technical level.
Suppose there is an annual fee to join the iBookstore. Would there be a different reaction to this EULA if Author was hidden behind that "paywall"? Or what if Apple just charged $99 for this app instead of making it free?
The reason everyone is so upset about the EULA is that Apple filled a huge void in the eBook creation software market and Apple filled that void but is rightfully limiting the tool for their own benefit. Everyone was hoping Apple would swoop in an create an awesome tool for making eBooks, but instead they made an awesome tool for making iBooks. Are non-iBook creators worse off today than they were a week ago? Nope.
A better solution (from a PR standpoint, not from a technical standpoint) would have been for Apple to make Author output a proprietary format. After all, no one is crying out because Xcode can't produce Android binaries or standards-compliant webpages. Still, an open format is the best solution for this type of product. You don't want authors having to learn how to cryptographically sign their books or be able to generate ad hoc builds just to get a book to a student. Apple is enforcing DRM at the EULA level rather than at the technical level.