Apple’s iPhone developer agreement published; it ain’t pretty
The details of the contract the mothership makes iPhone developers sign have been little more than whispers and legend. Now, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has published an older version of the document in full and the picture it paints is less than flattering.
The EFF has published Apple’s iPhone Developer Program License Agreement (.pdf), as well as a listing of highlights and related commentary. Here’s a sample of what’s now publicly available, secured through a NASA Freedom of Information Act request:
- • Ban on Public Statements: As mentioned above, Section 10.4 prohibits developers, including government agencies such as NASA, from making any “public statements” about the terms of the Agreement.
• Ban on Reverse Engineering: Section 2.6 prohibits any reverse engineering (including the kinds of reverse engineering for interoperability that courts have recognized as a fair use under copyright law), as well as anything that would “enable others” to reverse engineer, the SDK or iPhone OS.
• No Tinkering with Any Apple Products: Section 3.2(e) is the “ban on jailbreaking” provision that received some attention when it was introduced last year. Surprisingly, however, it appears to prohibit developers from tinkering with any Apple software or technology, not just the iPhone, or “enabling others to do so.”
• Kill Your App Any Time: Section 8 makes it clear that Apple can “revoke the digital certificate of any of Your Applications at any time.”
The version of the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement published by the EFF is dated Rev. 3-17-09, so it’s a somewhat less than fresh. Nevertheless, the terms listed above and in the full agreement seems to be overly strident and at odds with the law (i.e. reverse engineering) and industry norms (i.e. blanket ban on reverse engineering any Apple product).
More signal, a lot more noise
Now, that the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement has been published in full, expect the rhetoric to get heated and for calls on Apple to change its ways grow.
Are you surprised at the stridency of the terms Apple forces developers to adhere to? Is the trade off between rights ceded and the chance to participate in the gold rush worth it?
What’s your take?
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