Apple announed today that it is dropping its very controversial Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) for released iPhone softwares.
From Apple:
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.
And who’s going to protect developers from YOU, Apple, stealing their work?
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.
Oh, really? What makes you think that? Could that be the thousands of bloggers and newspapers talking crap about your legal grip on developers??
They also highlight the fact that unreleased software and features will remain under NDA until they are released, which makes sense.
It took a while but you finally listened to us, Apple.