Posts tagged Author
Why Apple’s Restrictive iBooks Author Rules May Not Be Legally Enforceable
Jan 25th
When Apple unveiled plans last week to ramp up its efforts in the education space, the company’s announcement was met with decidedly mixed reactions. While many welcomed Apple’s foray into digital textbook publishing, others were less enthusiastic. The idea of delivering textbooks via tablets may have promise in theory, but Apple’s initial execution doesn’t look all that disruptive yet.
The latter part of the announcement covered the impressive expansion of iTunes U and the launch of iBooks Author, a DIY tool for publishing digital textbooks. If anything could pose a threat to the status quo in the textbook industry, it would be such an application. But wait. As it turned out, the so-called “Garage Band for e-books” wouldn’t be quite as open and revolutionary as some thought.
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That’s because the end-user license agreement (EULA) governing how its end products could be distributed turned out to be especially restrictive, a fact bemoaned by our own Marshall Kirkpatrick. Even stalwart Apple supporter John Gruber chimed in to call the iBooks Author EULA “Apple at its worst.”
So what’s the big deal? The agreement contains a provision stating that “if your Work is provided for a fee (including as part of any subscription-based product or service), you may only distribute the Work through Apple,” and then proceeds to outline further limitations on the paid distribution of one’s e-books. So much for iBooks Author being a groundbreaking, industry-shaking move.
As troubling as the iBooks Author EULA looks, it’s questionable whether or not the agreement can be legally enforced under current copyright law, explains Philadelphia-based lawyer Max Kennerly on his blog.
The issue, says Kennerly, comes down to the difference between exclusive and non-exclusive licenses. Apple seeks to establish an exclusive license with users, in which, by legal definition, “the copyright holder permits the licensee to use the protected material for a specific use and further promises that the same permission will not be given to others. The licensee violates the copyright by exceeding the scope of this license.”
A provision in the Copyright Act requiring a written “transfer of copyright ownership” may serve as an unintended legal loophole for those seeking to go around Apple’s restrictions and selling their e-books.
Explains Kennerly:
In the end, the iBooks Author EULA leaves both Apple and the author in a strange stand-off: Apple doesn’t actually have the right to tell the author not to take their work somewhere else, but the author can’t do that without breaching the EULA — even though they retain full rights in their copyright.
Of course, this is just one legal expert’s interpretation of the legal niceties, based in part on somewhat obscure concepts and court-established precedents. Still, on paper it would appear that the legal enforceability of the iBooks Author EULA isn’t entirely clear, and this may leave the door open to authors brave and curious enough to find out.
View full post on ReadWriteWeb
Google Removes Author: Search From Google News
Dec 19th
You can no longer search for articles from specific authors in Google News. As Barry Schwartz reported this morning on Search Engine Roundtable, using the author: firstname lastname command at Google News brings up no results now, and Google has disabled it on purpose. If you think it has something…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
View full post on Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Google Adds Author Stats To Webmaster Tools
Dec 15th
Google has introduced a new report in Google Webmaster Tools named “Author Stats.” Author Stats shows you how often your content is showing up on the Google search results page. This will show up under Google Webmaster Tools in the “labs” section in Webmaster Tools. It shows…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
View full post on Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Google Webmaster Tools Author Stats
Dec 15th
Google has introduced a new report in Google Webmaster Tools named “Author Stats.” Author Stats shows you how often your content is showing up on the Google search results page. This will show up under Google Webmaster Tools in the “labs” section in Webmaster Tools. It shows…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
View full post on Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Google Improves Author Info in SERPs for Signed-in Users, Simplifies Markup
Nov 4th
Google has been diligently working on testing and rolling out new authorship features over the past several weeks. The newest additions give content creators the ability to claim authorship through a simple email verification process an…
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Interview With Louis Rosenfeld, Author Of Search Analytics – Part 2
Aug 5th
Part 2 of a two-part interview with information architect and author Louis Rosenfeld about search analytics that can (and should) be used for optimizing your website.
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
View full post on Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Interview With Louis Rosenfeld, Author Of Search Analytics
Jul 8th
Interview with information architect and author Louis Rosenfeld about search analytics that can (and should) be used for optimizing your website.
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
View full post on Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Self-Published Author Sells a Million E-Books on Amazon
Jun 20th
Since the Kindle’s launch, Amazon has heralded each new arrival into what it calls the “Kindle Million Club,” the group of authors who have sold over 1 million Kindle e-books. There have been seven authors in this club up ’til now – some of the big names in publishing: Stieg Larsson, James Patterson, and Nora Roberts for example.
But the admission today of the eighth member of this club is really quite extraordinary. Not because John Locke is a 60 year old former insurance salesman from Kentucky with no writing or publishing background. But because John Locke has accomplished the feat of selling one million e-books as a completely self-published author.
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Rather than being published by major publishing house – and all the perks that have long been associated with that (marketing, book tours, prime shelf space in retail stores) – Locke has sold 1,010,370 Kindle books (as of yesterday) having used Kindle Direct Publishing to get his e-books into the Amazon store. No major publisher. No major marketing.
Locke writes primarily crime and adventure stories, including Vegas Moon, Wish List, and the New York Times E-Book Bestseller, Saving Rachel. Most of the e-books sell for $.99, and he says he makes 35 cents on every sale. That sort of per book profit is something that authors would never get from a traditional book deal.
Locke is also the author of now bound-to-be classic How I Sold 1 Million E-Books in 5 Months. Of course, rags-to-riches, unpublished-to-bestselling author isn’t a particularly new phenomenon. But to have this occur outside a major publishing house certainly is. One million e-books in just 5 months is a testament to the incredible popularity of e-books – particularly at this low price point. And it is yet another reminder of the shifting publishing – not just reading – landscape.
Pointing to the success of another self-published author Amanda Hocking, GigaOm’s Mathew Ingram suggests that the successes of Locke and Hocking are “another sign of the ongoing disruption of the traditional publishing industry.” Indeed, self-publishing was once viewed as the last resort for frustrated authors. In the future, should such successes be repeated, it may be the publishing industry that gets more rejection notices.
View full post on ReadWriteWeb
