EFF on Apple's iPhone Developer Program Agreement

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/03/iphone-developer-program-license-agreement-all

by dpifke • 16 years ago

102 78 16 years ago

jrockway6• 16 years ago

Yeah, but the lists spring back when you hit the end! And there is no ugly battery door!

bmalicoat• 16 years ago

I know you're being sarcastic but the springiness of the iPhone controls is one thing I miss when using any Android device. If nothing else it let's you know all your input is being recognized, which is very important. But yes, I'd much rather have an open device without a restrictive dev contract than springy scrolling.

alexandros3• 16 years ago

I am sure the android devs would love to implement that, but there were a few patents in the way...

sublemonic• 16 years ago

In short, no competition among app stores means no competition for the license terms that apply to iPhone developers.

What is impacting developers is the lack of competition between the iPhone and other mobile devices. Apple's app store is winning because iPhone is winning. This will not always be the case.

loup-vaillant8• 16 years ago

Why do you assume that a phone should have no more than one app store?

loup-vaillant8• 16 years ago

OK, someone here apparently thinks that having 2 or more app stores for a smart-phone is obviously silly.

A smart-phone is a computer. A damn computer. Would you want to have only one app store for your desktop? Like, you have to get Microsoft's seal of approval before you can publish any program at all? Would you like to be unable to run Open Office? GNU/Linux?

The "only one app store" thing is good old "Trusted Computing" (I should say "treacherous", by the way). Now, anyone, please prove me that the size of a computer is significant enough to warrant lock-down in some cases, and not in others.

scootklein2• 16 years ago

developers live and die by the app store, they won't ever affect anything. nerds yell really loud but they are comparatively a very small bunch.

what's going to positively affect change is android eating apple's lunch. charging 30% for in-app purchases and restricting content is going to seem completely out of line when a better majority of people have phones that are wide open and are doing some super cool stuff because google just doesn't care.

time will tell, but only when the public realizes what they're missing out on and starts to yell about it will things swing back in the developers' favor

yason3• 16 years ago

developers live and die by the app store, they won't ever affect anything. nerds yell really loud but they are comparatively a very small bunch.

Those petty FSF nerds started free software in the 80's and well, we still have it.

I compile native ARM binaries for the latest Android mobile platform with gcc — a compiler that was first released sometime in the latter half of 1980. Ironically, Apple uses gcc themselves, but they're keen on locking more and more stuff.

I bet a lot that in 2030's nobody remembers iPhone or any of the iPhone applications. You possibly can't even run them in an emulator if you wished as is the case with 80's and 90's games.

It may be really loud yelling from a minority but it's a philanthropic minority that doesn't think in terms of coming years but coming decades. Paul Graham wrote so aptly in some of his essays that nerds sense restrictions on the essential hacking freedoms the same way as animals sense an earthquake or a tsunami. (Or something like that.)

tedunangst3• 16 years ago

People were writing free software long before the FSF existed.

scootklein2• 16 years ago

the consumers keep voting with their wallet, and the developers still need to feed their kids and keep the lights on. maslow was right - food and lights will continue to trump philanthropic change as long as things are "good enough". more than developers complaining is apple LOSING those developers and apple losing sales to Android. enough of either will warrant a reaction.

rimantas8• 16 years ago

Also they have been pushing LLVM, OpenCL; released Grand Central Dispatch libs; still are the one of the main contributors for WebKit and push HTML5 forward. Also they make XCode and their SDKs available for free and even include XCode with every single distribution of the OS. But I guess that should not stop some parroting about Apple locking down. How do those Google apps for Android sources look like?

sjs• 16 years ago

iPhone is where the money is at, so developers develop for the platform that can feed them. Sure it sucks that you give 30% to Apple, but 70% of a significant chunk is better than even 100% of a small sliver.

Developers will follow the users, at least initially. Apple delivers the best overall experience for people who don't think of their phone as a computer.

When I get an Android phone next upgrade I'll still keep my iPhone for development.

somebear• 16 years ago

Just wanted to point out that Symbian phones allow installation of application downloaded from any source with only some platform security restrictions. I guess those 47% Symbian phones in the smartphone market [1] are not a better majority?

That said, I hope you're right and people force Apple to loosen the app store licensing agreement.

[1]: 2009 numbers from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone

jasongullickson• 16 years ago

Dear EFF, "If you've got a better way to make ice..."

If you have a way to design, produce and maintain a device and platform that is as interesting and compelling to both developers and customers as what Apple has done, and you can do it without any restrictions on what third-party developers do with it, by all means, go for it.

The "smartphone" and similar devices have been around for at least a decade. Apple didn't come up with some magic chip or something to suddenly make them viable, it is their system that is the difference.

Is there a cost to developers? Certainly, but nothing stops you from writing code for more than one platform and if you think you have a killer app but need more freedom than Apple allows, release it somewhere else.

I think what most people miss is that there is a relationship between the control Apple exhibits and the quality of their results; if you don't believe this is true then there are other options for you out there.

I'm tired of hearing about how Apple is "abusing" developers, unlike shared global resources like the Internet and clean air, there's nothing compulsory about using or coding for the iPhone.

jrockway6• 16 years ago

The EFF is about electronic freedom. The iPhone takes away the freedom of users and developers. They are merely enumerating how that happens, so that developers who are unaware of the strict contract they signed understand what freedom they gave away just to put an app in the app store.

I'm tired of hearing about how Apple is "abusing" developers, unlike shared global resources like the Internet and clean air, there's nothing compulsory about using or coding for the iPhone.

Because people really care what you're tired of hearing. (I'm tired of hearing about what you're tired of hearing about. And you're probably tired of hearing that I'm tired of hearing what you're tired of hearing about. Do you see where this leads?)

Anyway, that's not what this article is about; it's just a list of strange conditions that you agreed to when you signed up for the iPhone SDK. You can only sue Apple for $50, you can't talk about the SDK, you can never exercise your legal right to reverse-engineer any Apple product ever again, etc. Pretty strange, and not something a reasonable person would expect to find in this sort of agreement. That is all the article is saying.

GHFigs7• 16 years ago

not something a reasonable person would expect to find in this sort of agreement

What sort of agreement is that? From what I hear, none of this is unusual in mobile or consoles.

rimantas8• 16 years ago

  The EFF is about electronic freedom

Maybe they should do something about GPL then. I find it limiting my freedom.

sokoloff• 16 years ago

The EFF is about electronic freedom. The iPhone takes away the freedom of users and developers.

From my perspective, users and developers have MORE freedom now with the advent of the iPhone than they had before it was introduced.

Before it was introduced, you had NO FREEDOM at all to develop, sell or use iPhone apps. Now, you have freedom to develop them under certain conditions that are not as free as possible in an EFF-idealized world, but to say that the introduction of the iPhone strictly takes away freedom I think is wrong.

hoopla• 16 years ago

"I'm tired of hearing about how Apple is 'abusing' developers".

Well, it's worth pointing out that the only way that EFF could get hold (and publicise) this document was by freaking FOIA'ing NASA (who signed it to be able to upload their NASA app). So, in one sense, you only get to "hear" about this contract if people like EFF actually do some pretty clever workarounds to obtain the document. Secondly, the very fact that public bodies are agreeing to this document make it something that I'd like to know more about. After all, they're signing it on our behalf.

jwr• 16 years ago

Why couldn't they just sign up as a developer and then get the document conveniently displayed on their screen?

It's not like anyone forces you to accept it.

GHFigs7• 16 years ago

Well, it's worth pointing out that the only way that EFF could get hold (and publicise) this document was by freaking FOIA'ing NASA

Why should it be any different? It's reasonable that the contract should be available that way for the reasons you state but you seem to be implying it was unreasonable for it to not be public even when it didn't concern a public entity. Do you feel that all contracts between two private parties should be public information?

gte910h2• 16 years ago

Apple could quite easily make a second appstore that anyone could post anything to, and only approved apps get in the "approved store".

Would cost apple 0.

protomyth4• 16 years ago

Don't value you fellow programmers time implementing that?

stanleydrew• 16 years ago

Section 14 states that, no matter what, Apple will never be liable to any developer for more than $50 in damages.

I dislike what Apple is doing with the app store as much as the next guy, but to be fair don't most contracts try to include some clause limiting liability like this, that in reality is almost never enforceable? Is this really so strange? (Honest question, so would love some real answers.)

edwilliams612• 16 years ago

but hey come on, the developer program costs $99.. they really will only refund 1/2 of that cost should installing the SDK cause your iMac to blow up and kill your entire family?

protomyth4• 16 years ago

Deal with PayPal or read the agreements from Microsoft and no - you will not find it unique to Apple.

praptak• 16 years ago

If I were to agree to such draconian terms there would have to be a huge incentive. This is not the case: http://www.stromcode.com/2009/05/24/the-incredible-app-store...

Entering such an unfavorable contract for mere hope of raking 20 bucks a day? Count me out.

lutorm4• 16 years ago

Thanks for posting that, those numbers were really interesting.

ynniv3• 16 years ago

1) Don't underprice your app.

2) It's a plate, not an IV - you still have to make something people want to eat, and then convince them to eat it.

This guy has 20 apps floating around the store... how much analysis and marketing can he really be doing? Then he justifies this by saying it might only take him from "$20 to $30" a day. If you are a company, it is your job to experiment with acquiring customers and determining the ROI on marketing.

The AppStore just attracts a lot of armchair entrepreneurs. Some of them hit gold, some didn't. I'm tired of hearing about all of them.

JunkDNA• 16 years ago

I'm not trying to be snarky, but has the EFF given the same treatment to the PS3 and Nintendo Wii agreements? Xbox 360?

Also, there is a bit of showmanship on the EFF's part here by going the FOIA route. You have to be able to read the contract before agreeing to it. Anyone (legally) can walk down the path of signing up for the developer account, and then bail when they get to the developer agreement. The reason that "public copies are scarce" is that anyone can go to Apple's website and go through the signup process and decide for themselves if the agreement is to their liking or not.

ajross• 16 years ago

I'm only trying to be a little snarky, but if Apple had limited themselves to producing a hand-held gaming console, I suspect folks would be a little less upset. There's a moral difference between locking down a purely entertainment gadget and one that's intended to store and manage most or all of my personal information.

And yes, to the extent that consoles are moving out of the "purely entertainment" category, their SDK restrictions are becoming equally troublesome. I think a good argument can be made that this is one of the reasons they're having trouble getting beyond the gaming market, in fact.

orangecat• 16 years ago

Yes, consoles are bad for freedom. But they aren't trying to replace general purpose computers, as Apple is trying to do with the iPhone and iPad.

eplanit2• 16 years ago

What's funny is how anyone is surprised. This isn't some new manifestation of Apple -- it's the Apple Computer I grew up resenting through the first 10 years of my career. Prior to OS X, Apple was always about being closed, proprietary, and all-controlling. That they ever ventured away from that must have been viewed by their leadership as a 'necessary evil', to be done for only a limited period.

This agreement, which I rejected and thus did not become an iPhony developer, is not at all a surprise. It's as warm and familiar as Apple pie. I'll have cake, instead.

EFF on Apple's iPhone Developer Program Agreement

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