The EFF blasts the Apple Developer License Agreement
How draconian is the App Store approval process? That’s been discussed over and over again. How draconian is the iPhone developer agreement, however? Copies of the agreement have been hard to come by for non-developers (for good reason; more on that later), but the EFF managed to get one, and it’s eye-opening.
The EFF used a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to get a copy of the agreement, after spying a NASA app in the App Store. The copy they obtained is, they noted, out of date, but it is likely it has not been significantly modified since the Rev. 3-17-09 version.
For one thing, in order to code and distribute apps for the iPhone which, unless the iPhone is jailbroken, can only come from the App Store after Apple’s approval, developers give up a number of rights. One of those is to even discuss the developer agreement.
10.4 Press Releases and Other Publicity
You may not issue any press releases or make any other public statements regarding this Agreement, its terms and conditions, or the relationship of the parties without Apple’s express prior written approval, which may be withheld at Apple’s discretion.
And that is probably why we never hear anything about the agreement.
Section 3.2 is the so-called “non-jailbreaking” section. It’s rather long, but the jailbreaking portion says:
(e) 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;
More EFF-discovered Apple limitations on developers:
Section 7.2: Applications developed with the use of Apple’s SDK can only be distributed through the App Store (sorry Cydia and RockMyPhone). Additionally, Apple can reject an app for any reason, even if it meets all of the formal requirements of Apple.
Section 8: Apple can “revoke the digital certificate of any of Your Applications at any time.” Yup, you were approved, and then rejected. It has already been made clear that Apple has a “kill switch” by which it can remotely disable apps, as well.
Section 14: Apple will never be liable to any developer for more than $50 in damages.
Section 2.6: No reverse engineering (including, the EFF points out, the kinds of reverse engineering for interoperability that courts have recognized as “fair use” under copyright law).
The conclusion of the EFF, which echoes the opinions of some who believe the best smartphone in the market is a jailbroken iPhone:
Overall, the Agreement is a very one-sided contract, favoring Apple at every turn. [...]
If Apple’s mobile devices are the future of computing, you can expect that future to be one with more limits on innovation and competition (or “generativity,” in the words of Prof. Jonathan Zittrain) than the PC era that came before. It’s frustrating to see Apple, the original pioneer in generative computing, putting shackles on the market it (for now) leads. If Apple wants to be a real leader, it should be fostering innovation and competition, rather than acting as a jealous and arbitrary feudal lord. Developers should demand better terms and customers who love their iPhones should back them.
It’s pretty obvious why developers put up with this type of agreement: it’s the only way to access the full set of iPhone users (as opposed to just jailbroken ones). As the iPhone is the smartphone right now, Apple has leverage. The EFF’s copy of the iPhone developer agreement is here (.PDF).
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