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Went to the developer program site a few minutes ago and saw the following notice:
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.
Rest assured that I'll be commenting further on this subject, but I wanted to post letting people know that the floodgates are about to open. I'm guessing iPhone bloggers are going to start posting massive amounts of code samples in the coming days. Good times for all... It's just a shame that Apple took so long to open the doors... I feel really bad for the authors who had to change their writing plans and even change the content of their books to accomodate Apple's resistance to lifting the NDA.
Enjoy!
The nice thing is that they have finally provided an explanation for
something!!
If that is the explanation (and it is one some people have
suggested - that keeping it closed allows patenting) I don't know why they
couldn't simply have been clear about it ('the NDA will remain in operation
until we're finished with the legal side of patenting our software').
Just in time for your Summit! I think Apple did this all because of you.
Open, honest company cannot make 'clouds' around its politic. If some step
produces a lot of misunderstandings, it MUST be explained. If something was
hidden, probably it was trick against clients (or against their complains).
