The latest news in the tumultuous relationship between Apple and iPhone app developers is a small victory on the developers side. It looks like Apple’s non-disclosure agreement with regards to apps build with the iPhone SDK is now officially kaput. The following is Apple’s official statement to developers:
To Our Developers
We have decided to drop the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for released iPhone software.
We put the NDA in place because the iPhone OS includes many Apple inventions and innovations that we would like to protect, so that others don’t steal our work. It has happened before. While we have filed for hundreds of patents on iPhone technology, the NDA added yet another level of protection. We put it in place as one more way to help protect the iPhone from being ripped off by others.
However, the NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone’s success, so we are dropping it for released software. Developers will receive a new agreement without an NDA covering released software within a week or so. Please note that unreleased software and features will remain under NDA until they are released.
Thanks to everyone who provided us constructive feedback on this matter.
There you have it. Apparently Apple finally came to the realization that protecting its “inventions and innovations” in exchange for hoards of bad press and aggravated developers simply wasn’t the smart path to take. Blog away, developers.
