Apple releases developers from NDA

Apple has said that developers of applications for the iPhone no longer need to sign the restrictive non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that previously accompanied its software developer kit (SDK).

The NDA caused a lot of bad feeling among the developer community for being far too restrictive. Developers were not allowed to discuss the contents of the SDK, nor to discuss the reasons for any application being refused by the Apple App store.

“We have decided to drop the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for released iPhone software,” said the company in a statement.

“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.”

“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.”

Developers complained that the terms of the NDA stopped them from discussing common problems and producing less buggy code. Some also felt that Apple was too enthusiastic in certain applications that competed with its own software.

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