Yay, No More NDA

October 1st, 2008, by The Angry Drunk

Actually, that’s not quite true; but Apple did put up announce­ment on the iPhone devel­oper site promis­ing to release a new NDA shortly that would sig­nif­i­cantly lift the restric­tions on iPhone devel­op­ers. The full text is:

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.

Now, let us be clear here. No one has pub­licly seen the new NDA; but my read of the announce­ment is that unre­leased iPhone OS soft­ware and fea­tures will still be NDA while released fea­tures are clear. In other words; this is exactly the same as the NDA that cov­ers OSX desk­top development.

Now I want to take a look at the big­ger pic­ture here. If you take this announce­ment, in com­bi­na­tion with the ear­lier announce­ment of changes to the App Store cus­tomer review process (mainly that review­ers must have, at least, down­loaded the appli­ca­tion), I think that a pat­tern is emerg­ing. I’ve held all along, although I haven’t blogged exten­sively about it, that the var­i­ous iPhone devel­op­ment issues (reviews, NDA, app acceptance/rejection) were not indica­tive of any sort of grand plan on Apple’s part; but were instead a col­lec­tion of bad deci­sions being made at mul­ti­ple lev­els in the orga­ni­za­tion. My hunch is, what we’re see­ing now is the adults wak­ing up and get­ting every­ones’ act together.

All I can say is, “about time, the whin­ing was giv­ing me a headache.”

28 comments - (Comments closed)
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  • http://www.the-wabe.com/ Rob

    Thank you for point­ing out that the new NDA pretty much mir­rors the NDA of unre­leased MacOS X pre­views. Of course, some peo­ple won’t stop bitch­ing until Steve Jobs comes to their house to per­son­ally fel­late them.

  • http://www.the-wabe.com/ Rob

    Thank you for point­ing out that the new NDA pretty much mir­rors the NDA of unre­leased MacOS X pre­views. Of course, some peo­ple won’t stop bitch­ing until Steve Jobs comes to their house to per­son­ally fel­late them.

  • http://www.theangrydrunk.com The Angry Drunk

    @Rob: Nah, Steve could per­son­ally deliver a blow job to each and every devel­oper and you’d still get a good ten per­cent com­plain­ing that he uses too much teeth.

  • http://www.theangrydrunk.com The Angry Drunk

    @Rob: Nah, Steve could per­son­ally deliver a blow job to each and every devel­oper and you’d still get a good ten per­cent com­plain­ing that he uses too much teeth.

  • bkhar­mony

    Developers! Developers! Deve–

    Sorry.

  • bkhar­mony

    Developers! Developers! Deve–

    Sorry.

  • http://unlogica.com Blain

    I’m secretly hop­ing Apple takes iPhone dev more like what they do with MacOS X. If you want to fid­dle with the sim­u­la­tor, go at it for free. If you want to actu­ally play and ship for cur­rently ship­ping iPhone OS, it’s $99. If you’re actu­ally seri­ous, and want to get the stuff that actu­ally demands a proper NDA, the unre­leased stuff, it’s time to pony up for a Premier or Select mem­ber­ship, which would then cover both MacOS and iPhone (And the devel­oper hard­ware discount’s good, too). It’d sep­a­rate the men from the boys, and let those seri­ous about it a faster track than flash­light app devs.

    Combine that with actu­ally pub­lish­ing and adher­ing to the double-super-secret allow/reject rules, and things will be much better.

  • http://unlogica.com Blain

    I’m secretly hop­ing Apple takes iPhone dev more like what they do with MacOS X. If you want to fid­dle with the sim­u­la­tor, go at it for free. If you want to actu­ally play and ship for cur­rently ship­ping iPhone OS, it’s $99. If you’re actu­ally seri­ous, and want to get the stuff that actu­ally demands a proper NDA, the unre­leased stuff, it’s time to pony up for a Premier or Select mem­ber­ship, which would then cover both MacOS and iPhone (And the devel­oper hard­ware discount’s good, too). It’d sep­a­rate the men from the boys, and let those seri­ous about it a faster track than flash­light app devs.

    Combine that with actu­ally pub­lish­ing and adher­ing to the double-super-secret allow/reject rules, and things will be much better.

  • http://diskgrinder.blogspot.com diskgrinder

    Fair play there, Mr. Angry and Mr. Jobs. Thanks for point­ing out the fact that, hey, we can all make bad deci­sions some­times. As in, “we just changed the game for mobile here, and guess what? We’re mak­ing the rules up as we go along.”

    That’s the way it is. Does any­one think that soc­cer was invented on day one and was per­fect in every regard just then? No. The first rules of asso­ci­a­tion foot­ball included the caveat that play­ers of a higher social stand­ing could kick the cock off work­ing class oiks with impunity. (Actually that rule still exists)

  • http://diskgrinder.blogspot.com diskgrinder

    Fair play there, Mr. Angry and Mr. Jobs. Thanks for point­ing out the fact that, hey, we can all make bad deci­sions some­times. As in, “we just changed the game for mobile here, and guess what? We’re mak­ing the rules up as we go along.”

    That’s the way it is. Does any­one think that soc­cer was invented on day one and was per­fect in every regard just then? No. The first rules of asso­ci­a­tion foot­ball included the caveat that play­ers of a higher social stand­ing could kick the cock off work­ing class oiks with impunity. (Actually that rule still exists)

  • http://diskgrinder.blogspot.com diskgrinder

    (I am agree­ing with you bay the way)

  • http://diskgrinder.blogspot.com diskgrinder

    (I am agree­ing with you bay the way)

  • http://ripragged.blogspot.com Anonymous

    The NDA is gone. I know this is a big fat hairy deal because I read it on the internet.

    Can some­body tell me what, exactly, changes? Also, if you wouldn’t mind, tell me in clear, log­i­cal terms why we do day­light sav­ings time.

    Thank you. (I’ll be at the same end of the bar tomorrow.)

  • http://rip-ragged.com/dross Rip Ragged

    The NDA is gone. I know this is a big fat hairy deal because I read it on the internet.

    Can some­body tell me what, exactly, changes? Also, if you wouldn’t mind, tell me in clear, log­i­cal terms why we do day­light sav­ings time.

    Thank you. (I’ll be at the same end of the bar tomorrow.)

  • http://unlogica.com Blain

    “Can some­body tell me what, exactly, changes?”

    The real big win is that devel­op­ers can share tips and tricks on how to make things work. Half the iPhone dev com­ments on Twitter were, “How do I do this? Fucking NDA!” The other half were, “I could tell you how to do this, but Fucking NDA!” Hopefully, this will also mean bet­ter apps at the low end as those with Mac expe­ri­ence devs can show ex-Windows or Java devs the way of the Cocoa.

    As for Daylight Savings, not a clue. But I also blame the NDA for that.

  • http://unlogica.com Blain

    “Can some­body tell me what, exactly, changes?”

    The real big win is that devel­op­ers can share tips and tricks on how to make things work. Half the iPhone dev com­ments on Twitter were, “How do I do this? Fucking NDA!” The other half were, “I could tell you how to do this, but Fucking NDA!” Hopefully, this will also mean bet­ter apps at the low end as those with Mac expe­ri­ence devs can show ex-Windows or Java devs the way of the Cocoa.

    As for Daylight Savings, not a clue. But I also blame the NDA for that.

  • Phil

    Good news!

    You may get to dance on the grave of Circuit City. After clos­ing Answer City and embrac­ing DIVX it has been all down­hill for them.

    Phil T.

    Fmr AC Main Queue Team Lead

    http://​www​.fool​.com/​i​n​v​e​s​t​i​n​g​/​v​a​l​u​e​/​2​0​0​8​/​1​0​/​0​6​/​k​i​s​s​-​t​h​e​s​e​-​r​e​t​a​i​l​e​r​s​-​g​o​o​d​b​y​e​.​a​spx

  • Phil

    Good news!

    You may get to dance on the grave of Circuit City. After clos­ing Answer City and embrac­ing DIVX it has been all down­hill for them.

    Phil T.

    Fmr AC Main Queue Team Lead

    http://​www​.fool​.com/​i​n​v​e​s​t​i​n​g​/​v​a​l​u​e​/​2​0​0​8​/​1​0​/​0​6​/​k​i​s​s​-​t​h​e​s​e​-​r​e​t​a​i​l​e​r​s​-​g​o​o​d​b​y​e​.​a​spx

  • http://jtechcommunications.com Josh Reynolds

    Darby–

    Please pause your drink­ing long enough to write us some­thing entertaining.

  • http://jtechcommunications.com Josh Reynolds

    Darby–

    Please pause your drink­ing long enough to write us some­thing entertaining.

  • http://diskgrinder.blogspot.com diskgrinder

    @Josh Reynolds: I found it enter­tain­ing. You didn’t. So that was the royal we, then?

  • http://diskgrinder.blogspot.com diskgrinder

    @Josh Reynolds: I found it enter­tain­ing. You didn’t. So that was the royal we, then?

  • Josh Reynolds

    Oh I found it enter­tain­ing too… I just want more ;)

  • Josh Reynolds

    Oh I found it enter­tain­ing too… I just want more ;)

  • http://diskgrinder.blogspot.com diskgrinder

    @Josh Reynolds: fair play, Josh

  • http://diskgrinder.blogspot.com diskgrinder

    @Josh Reynolds: fair play, Josh

  • http://ripragged.blogspot.com Anonymous

    Darby,

    Please keep drink­ing long enough to hold forth on Windows 7, now due some­time late next year.

    There’s no doubt it will suck, but a true geek, drunk, should dis­cuss it.

  • http://rip-ragged.com/dross Rip Ragged

    Darby,

    Please keep drink­ing long enough to hold forth on Windows 7, now due some­time late next year.

    There’s no doubt it will suck, but a true geek, drunk, should dis­cuss it.