Apple explicitly said Thursday in its FAQs on the announcement that any textbooks sold through it could not be sold anywhere else:

Q. I’m an author (or publisher). Can I distribute this work on my own Web site?
A. You may distribute books created in iBooks Author free of charge on your own Web site. If you wish to sell your book, you must do so through the iBookstore.

Without either a universally accepted file format for textbooks, or the ability of e-readers to accommodate many different standards, the Reed report concluded that “faculty will find themselves faced with the prospect of selecting course readings based on their compatibility with a particular device rather than on the suitability of the material for the course.