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Apple Ditches iPhone NDA

Apple had placed a fairly restrictive nondisclosure agreement on certain aspects of the iPhone Apps Store, the iPhone SDK, and what developers for the iPhone could and couldn't say about their own products. After enduring a firestorm of negative feedback over the issue, Apple has changed its NDA policy.

Today, Apple issued a notice to its developers. It reads:

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.

In the meantime, Apple has yet to comment on the approval process for applications, which still has developers up in arms.

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