Somehow they are stating that they helped inject competition when they eliminated the ability for retailers to compete on price. Their view of injecting competition was to restrict other retailers options so that they (Apple) could better compete.

The innovation statement is an even bigger fail. If they are talking about innovation in devices and e-books themselves then I think that is irrelevant. If they are talking about innovation in the market then I am not sure how forcing their business model on all retailers can be seen as innovation.

It’s obvious to everyone except Apple and their staunchest fans that they have no chance to win this case.

“By submitting Content to Automattic for inclusion on your Website, you grant Automattic a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, modify, adapt and publish the Content solely for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting your blog.”

No transfer right, no sublicense right, and specific wording that reuse is to directly promote you. Much better deal. Those tumblr terms are pretty awful. That reads like you’re essentially gifting your content to whoever owns them (now Yahoo) for anything they damn well please with no recourse at all.

Next we’ll see the lame excuse of “while not admitting guilt but taking into account the potential cost of litigation vs the cost of settlement, the decision was made in light of these numbers to settle blah, blah, blah….”

Own your guilt Apple, pay up and move on.

The thing is, you’re looking at guidelines here, not a contract. And jumping to conclusions about contracts you haven’t read is pretty silly.

These things are spelled out in the contract I signed, including detailed information should the Universal Rights Holder choose to use the story/characters elsewhere.

This is not the best route for everyone, but I find that having all the information before making a business decision helps me make the right one:)

I’m pretty sure that anyone who thinks this is the real advantage in self-publishing won’t last five minutes. The advantage is in allowing writers the chance to connect with readers and build a following. That doesn’t have to happen overnight.

We’ve seen the success stories of authors who have massive, almost instant, success. But the big unknown is how individual authors/e-books that build a following will progress over the longer term.

The future of e-books will be found in the long term success of indie authors who respect their readers, concentrate on what is truly important – writing and producing the best possible books. Gaming the system and obsessive marketing will not help a rubbish book.

I’ve written work-for-hire. There are some things I would still write as work-for-hire, there are some thing I’d want to negotiate details on, and there are some things I’d never want to do as W-F-H. The Amazon “one size fits all” contract for the rank-and-file… Only allows for that first, not the second.

I would feel more comfortable if they said flat-out it was work-for-hire (for the IP owner) if permitted by the IP owner at all, with the royalty rates already spelled out, and the guarantee of the author’s name on the cover.