Apple's iPhone Developer License Agreement Revealed 483
nigham writes "The EFF is publicly disclosing a version of Apple's iPhone developer program license agreement. The highlights: you can't disclose the agreement itself (the EFF managed to get it via the Freedom of Information Act thanks to NASA's recent app), Apple reserves the right to kill your app at any time with no reason, and Apple's liability in any circumstance is limited to 50 bucks. There's also this gem: 'You will not, through use of the Apple Software, services or otherwise create any Application or other program that would disable, hack, or otherwise interfere with the Security Solution, or any security, digital signing, digital rights management, verification or authentication mechanisms implemented in or by the iPhone operating system software, iPod Touch operating system software, this Apple Software, any services or other Apple software or technology, or enable others to do so.' The entire agreement (PDF) is up at the EFF's site."
Re:What's the big deal? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Maybe its time ... (Score:4, Informative)
But has Apple stooped to assimilating other people's technology?
Wasn't there a lot of discussion recently when Nokia accused Apple of using patented technology without paying a fair price?
Re:No offense, but RTFA (Score:3, Informative)
You are completely missing the point; NASA was compelled to surrender the information by the rule of law, it did not do so willingly. They cannot be held liable for the disclosure.
Re:What's the big deal? (Score:3, Informative)
AT&T is already allowing VOIP over 3G.
http://share.skype.com/sites/en/2009/10/good_move_att.html [skype.com]
Re:What's the big deal? (Score:5, Informative)
Google may remove the Product from the Market or reclassify the Product at its sole discretion. Google reserves the right to suspend and/or bar any Developer from the Market at its sole discretion.
Re:What's the big deal? (Score:4, Informative)
Yeah, they might get the other .6% of the mobile app market....
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/01/apple-responsible-for-994-of-mobile-app-sales-in-2009.ars [arstechnica.com]
Re:Another nail in their coffin (for me). (Score:3, Informative)
"I just got screwed buying an unlicenced cable because I didn't think charging CAD $55 was a reasonable price for a $3 output cable; turns out you either pay the piper or live without, because Apple (and their licencees) all chip their accessories now and the iPhone won't work without detecting one"
Exactly what kind of cable is this, and which device? I have an iphone 3G, and it works fine with my bought-from-Hong-Kong-Ebay-Seller cables, as did my friend's 3Gs. It charges fine, and allows USB connections for transferring data, syncing, or flashing the phone.
Maybe you just got a broken cable? I know that in my lot of 5, one of them had a loose connection.
As for the N900... I have a Milestone (motorola), which is essentially in the same basket for 3G since it only supports the European frequences and thus is edge-only here (plus you have to manually enter your APN the first time, but you can find those online). Running on Edge isn't too bad though - if I actually need to do something like downloading over 1-2MB, wifi is usually nearby - and getting past the hassles of the irritating on-screen keyboard, unchangable batteries, mediocre battery life and etc of my iPhone is worth it. The iPhone now does well as a fancy Mp3 player with wifi for downloads, but then it always somewhat sucked as a phone anyhow.
Perhaps what we really need are phones that all allow tethering on data, and the ability to hook up the extra stuff (like ipods, PDA's or Mp3 players) via USB when you need to download a tune or app on the run.
Re:What's the big deal? (Score:3, Informative)
(and your 7 year old is using your iPhone why exactly?)
Apple has been marketing iPod Touch, which runs most of the same apps as iPhone, as an alternative to Nintendo and Sony handheld video game systems.
Re:What's the big deal? (Score:2, Informative)
My understanding is that Apple now approves most apps in a few days.
Your understanding from personal experience, from Apple's official stance, or from what you hear from a few developers?
It seems as if Apple can decide to block an application without actually rejecting it (in order to keep the FCC of their tails) - I'm currently on day 63 "In Review" with an app which I now consider (unofficially) rejected by Apple
Re:Fundamental flaw: it is not *APPLE*'s phone (Score:3, Informative)
Apple is not preventing, nor can they legally prevent, developers from developing apps for their own iPhones or other people's iPhones. This is why there are many apps available for so called "jailbroken" iPhones.
Actually they have been trying to do just that. It is Apple's stance that jail-breaking a phone is a violation of the DMCA (which it almost certainly is). According to Apple's view you would be committing a Federal crime by jail-breaking a phone you owned. The scarry part about the DMCA is that you most likely ARE committing a Federal crime when you jail-break your phone.
When the EFF tried to add in an exemption to the DMCA, Apple opposed the motion. You can read more in PC Worlds article. Or simply Google it:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/159532/apple_files_opposition_to_dmca_exemption_for_jailbreaking.html [pcworld.com]
While you really need to read the full text of the DMCA to fully appreciate what is going on. You can find the full text here:
http://w2.eff.org/IP/DMCA/hr2281_dmca_law_19981020_pl105-304.html [eff.org]
Or here:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.2281.ENR [loc.gov]:
This issue can pretty much be summed up by the first paragraph of section 1201:
The only defense in this situation would be fair use:
However you have to do all of the work your self:
`(b) ADDITIONAL VIOLATIONS- (1) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that--
Now these are only excerpts. You really NEED to read the entire statute to understand what is going on. The thing is massive. In my opinion it is written in such a away as to be terrible for the average product owner.
Re:No surprises (Score:3, Informative)
I consider it a feature the IB doesn't do code generation - the NIB files that are generated remain part of the app bundle and can even be changed at runtime. I think that's a far more elegant solution.
Re:What's the big deal? (Score:3, Informative)
Anyone who has negotiated a software licensing purchase has had to agree to similar terms. Anyone who has after accepted a severance package has agreed to similar terms. Hell, anyone who has accepted an offer of salaried employment has done so. This is common in just about every type of contractual agreement.
Besides, anyone can go to developer.apple.com, click about three times and pull the thing up. There's about as much secrecy and coercion involved in reading a pay-walled article on the New York Times, so could we all GTF over it already?
Re:What's the big deal? (Score:3, Informative)
You just posted terms of use for the XNA web site. Do I have to explain the difference between a web site and a programming framework?..