Apple Hears Developers, Nixes iPhone NDA
iPhone developers are free at last to talk about their applications. Apple has officially dropped the nondisclosure agreement that prohibited developers from discussing the iPhone’s operating system, application code and development kit, according to an announcement made on Apple’s website Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, across the internet, Ewoks pound drums and sing songs. Or, rather, developers are finally venting their frustration and enjoying the freedom to talk about all their hard work over the last few months without fear of Apple’s retribution.
Prior to Wednesday, Apple required developers to digitally agree to an NDA upon download of the company’s iPhone developer tools. The agreement legally restricted developers from talking about their applications, how they made them or details of iPhone technology. Most recently, the NDA was actually expanded to cover Apple’s reasons for Application removal on the App Store, which has proven to be quite profitable for some.
According to Apple’s announcement, the NDA was in place simply to prevent other companies from stealing Apple’s work. The NDA was removed because it “… has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone’s success.”
So this is what nerd liberty feels like. Anyone want to talk about my latest iPhone coin flipping or virtual cigarette lighter app?
For more on the story, check out Brian Chen’s coverage on Wired’s Gadget Lab.
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