Apple Finally "Gets It," Drops NDA for Released iPhone Software

Apple has apparently listened to developers who said that the current version of the NDA for iPhone developers was strangling innovation. Surprise!

In a post noted on the front page of the Apple Developer Connection site, they indicated a change to the NDA. As detailed further:

To Our Developers

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.

Of course that means that pre-released or beta iPhone SDKs and the like would still be under NDA, but that's normal. Most assumed once iPhone software 2.0 went live the NDA would be lifted.

This development means, for one, that books that have been waiting for the NDA to lift (some grew to believe it would never happen and cancelled books) can now start printing them. At the same time, developers starting posts tips and tricks all around the Web.

Of course, there's still that niggling NDA hanging over rejection letters, which seems to be paranoid, to say the least. Perhaps if they ever get around to fully detailing the policies around which apps are accepted into the App Store, this might be lifted as well.