Apple Removes iPhone Software Non Disclosure Agreement

A lot of iPhone software developers have been kept very quiet regarding the SDK. That means anything related to the iPhone was kept confidential, which made it very difficult for these developers to express their opinions.

Well, today Apple has drastically removed the Non Disclosure Agreement from their SDK. The purpose of removing this NDA? Apple wanted to remove the burden on developers and assist them in creating even better applications. I think this is GIANT step for developers, which will allow us to see even better quality apps in the future! Here is what Apple had to say:

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.

We all know that Apple’s lawyers are quick to act for those who break their NDA. This is a right step for developers as they will be able to discuss and even help other developers in creating iPhone applications. So this means that existing firmware (EG 1.x to 2.1) can be discussed, but future firmware will remain under the NDA. What do you think? A step in the right direction?

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