Apple, Inc this week dropped their notorious NDA associated with the iPhone Development Kit. The NDA which had been the scorn of programmers around the globe had become so burdensome that developers were shying away from the iPhone due to their inability to discuss anything with any other developers.
The release on the web site said “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.”
With all of the negative press that they received about the NDA, it is a wonder that it took this long to actually release the developers and let them do what they have always done with Apple products.
This however, still leaves the problem of the Apple iPhone Store. If Apple does not clarify the pre-constraints for developers, then it will be a hard press to get developers to come flocking back. Obviously, Apple has a lot to lose in this case.
While NDAs are intended to protect intellectual property, companies producing all encompassing NDAs that are unacceptable to the programming public have become pandemic lately. Hopefully Apple has learned from this case and will further enhance the problem
