Apple Drops the F’ing NDA!

by Jody Mitoma on October 1, 2008 at 12:18 pm

Believe it or not, Apple Inc. has actually decided to lift the non-disclosure act on released iPhone software. Apple has been getting far too many complaints about there being an NDA, and finally, half a year later, the NDA has been lifted — for good.

Here’s a direct quote off of Apple’s website:

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.

FuckingNDA.com (excuse the profanity - it’s not my fault!), you’ve done us well.

Also, as mentioned on TUAW, in relation to all of this good news, Craig Hockenberry of Iconfactory, and developer of Twitterrific, has some special source code to share in celebration of this momentous occasion.

(via Apple)