iPhone Sheep

During the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco Mark Methenitis talked with a group of developers on Wednesday concerning the contract that developers must sign in order to have their apps placed in the iTunes Apps Store as if it wasn’t hard enough to get the app approved in the first place.

He explained that developers could be in serious trouble if they were not cautious. He stated that “outside the realm of being reasonable,” regarding the iPhone developer program license agreement, the registered iPhone developer agreement, and the iPhone SDK agreement. However, there are some things that developers need to pay close attention to while creating their apps.

Confidentiality is one major concern. Developers cannot even hint about pre-release of any of Apple’s developments such as the iPhone SDK. However, the way in which the contract is read, this confidentially agreement goes far beyond to completely cover the device, which includes a test version of an iPhone. If the developer allows a non-developer to use the phone in any way the developer is then in breach of contract if Apple finds out about the incident.

Another clause to watch is the one that states any information sent from Apple is confidential, but what the developer sends to Apple is not confidential. Therefore, if a developer sends information to Apple regarding an app they have in progress. Apple can let the world know.

Confidentially may not be the biggest problem as Methenitis explained but exporting an app to another country is a huge mistake. If the developer does not have the app up to code in privacy and compliance acts, jail time can be the end result being five years in jail for every install along with a possible $5,000 fine for every install. This was just the beginning.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights watchdog group obtained a copy of the iPhone developer license agreement using the Freedom of Information Act. The Electronic Frontier Foundation stated that the license has “a few troubling highlights”.

One of the troubling highlights noted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation was that the developers have to agree to the license agreement and goes on to forbid the developer to make a public statement regarding the agreement. This is the main reason you have not seen this “secret” agreement. Going a bit deeper on the subject, the terms are not deemed confidential; however, Apple has forbid developers from talking about the terms.

One biggie is that that Apple retains the right to “revoke the digital certificate of any of Your Applications at any time.”

EFF senior staff attorney Fred von Lohmann stated on the website, “If Apple wants to be a real leader; it should be fostering innovation and competition, rather than acting as a jealous and arbitrary feudal lord.” “Developers should demand better terms and customers who love their iPhones should back them.”

To read the entire agreement, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has made it available here.

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