Dear Apple ... Educators seem to have more 'Questions' than answers ...

Education needs to be prepared for Apple to clean up the licensing issue and not in a fashion that benefits schools.  While the licensing issue always seemed to contradict traditional licensing agreements, the result was very beneficial for schools and I had hoped that Apple was purposely overlooking the issue.  I am not as convinced today that is the case.  Basically, plan on your school paying more moving forward:

1. Schools have been reading the license from Apple to mean that they can distribute any app purchased through one school account to be synced with as many devices as they have as long as they are distributing them through that one school account.  Was this in fact the understanding that schools could take?
2. If this is not the case anymore, are schools currently in violation?
3. By the way, is this licensing issue a new issue?
4. Did you notice the change in Terms of Service so that it says 5 devices and not 5 computers?  
   
   (iv) You shall be able to store Products on five iTunes-authorized devices at any time.
    
5. Are people scared off or at least confused enough by the issue enough to not want to implement these devices in their schools?
6. I have to be honest, I don't know how to successfully pay multiple times for a single app beyond having one account for each device? Is there a way? Do you do this buy clicking the pay and re-download button each time? It doesn't appear to work for me?

You have already purchased this item.

New questions as a result:  

1. How can you start a school "owned" iPad or iPod Touch initiative without having the licensing agreement and syncing issue cleaned up?  
2. What are schools to do now if they are not in compliance with the Terms of Service?
3. Does Apple have a clear understanding as an organization themselves of their own Terms of Service? What has your Apple representative told you?  My experience has been that they are not sure themselves and I have personally been given very contradictory information.
4. Can't we get a definitive statement from Apple? If schools are not in compliance, how can we be?  What can we do to pay properly?  
5. Is there a "new" system for distributing and controlling these devices on the way?  In my opinion, the greatest challenge that education faces with these devices is successful management of the devices themselves.  

Peronsally, I have become more and more a believer in Apple's devices but there are still more questions than answers at this time.  As I do wonder, "Is this issue finally coming to a head to placate "textbook" companies and other major educational companies?" Now that so many school districts are looking at these devices as their tool of choice, did the problem simply creep up on Apple or has this been an issue that has been willing to be overlooked until these devices took a firm foothold within the education market.  Hmm... I just wonder ... One last question, do you think this is any clearer in the Android App market?  

I do hope that our educational community can really come together and voice an opinion on the matter.  Can we somehow create one "voice" and one "message" for Apple to hear?  

Comments

[Richard]

As a dabbler in iPhone / iPad apps (and an educator) the education market is not a very appealing market. I find it hard to believe that anyone who specifically develop apps for schools given the current financial arrangements.

Marking your app up for a site-wide license is probably the best compromise but is a school going to pay $500 or more more an app given they are used to paying a $1?

What do you think is a "fair" solution that rewards app publishers?

[Deon Scanlon]

This is definitely a cloudy issue, and Apple Rep's responses have continuously been "read the terms of service". No comment has been forthcoming at all, until recently an Apple staff member told a group of educators, essentially, that they need to start thinking about student-managed devices. The impression given was that this is the only way to deal with the issue in a simple and practical manner.

Well, I'd have to say that, as far as pedagogy goes, this is a great idea. I teach in a school with 1:1 iPod touches, so for us, this is easy to implement. Sure, it's a little more costly for parents, but it takes the problem out of the hands of teacher, and is far more likely to encourage development of decent education apps.

In schools who wish to run their own sets of iPods, this becomes quite difficult. Nobody wants to have to create an account for every iPod touch in their school, unless the number is very small. I believe that schools want to the right thing as far as licensing and copyright goes, but Apple have not considered schools at all, and not made it easy for us.

As for the '(iv) You shall be able to store Products on five iTunes-authorized devices at any time.' statement: I don't believe that an iPod touch counts as an 'iTunes-authorized device', as you don't have to authorize an iPod touch. You have to authorize a laptop or desktop computer in iTunes, but apps can be sync'd to an iPod without the need for an account password. At no stage in the set-up of an iPod touch do you need to 'authorize' it to a certain iTunes account.

I agree with Richard's comment about site licensing for apps. A developer could post two app versions - a single-user and a school-license, with their own End User License Agreement attached. I don't think that $500 for a site-licence, based on a $1 app, is realistic - I've yet to see a school-based site license agreement whereby you pay for 500 copies for a site license... this would make Microsoft Office worth around $30,000 for a medium-sized high school (no school would pay that...).

Schools will pay reasonable money to reduce the risk prosecution - developers will need to decide what is reasonable, but I would certainly pay 50-100 seats for a site license for a $1-2 app. For the more expensive apps ($5+) I would find this a little harder, though. As Richard asks, is a school going to pay $500+ to distribute an app?

I doubt it... Apple have allowed the bar to be set very low. Raising it will be very difficult, and will definitely turn many schools off - I know this for a fact, having just recently held an iPod touch in education 'conference' which involved a discussion about this very topic.

[Chris]

I used to make video games for a living, but switched to teaching 2 years ago. I worked on some iPhone games before switching careers, and still have an Apple developers account. At the last studio I worked at, we had 30 or 40 iPods and iPhones. It was a major headache trying to keep track of iTunes accounts, syncing, OS updates, backups, licenses etc... (we also had to deal about something called Provisioning Certificates). Basically, the iTunes-iPod-Mac relationship starts to break down when more than 5 bits of hardware try to communicate.

The only policy that worked was for individual employees to look after a small number of iPods and even then to be prepared for them to be wiped whenever you plugged them into a Mac.

I'm thinking of using iPod Touches in my classes one day, and I think they're awesome devices. I don't look forward to being forced to use them with iTunes though. iTunes was great for media, but is creaking under the weight of recent additions like movie rentals, iBooks, two Appstores, and all the files you create on an iPad...