The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has acquired a recent copy of Apple’s iPhone Developer Program License Agreement (PDF Link) and posted it online. Previously seen only by those applying to be a licensed iPhone developer, the EFF used the Freedom of Information Act to ask NASA, which distributes a free NASA App through the App Store, for a copy. Contained within the agreement is a section prohibiting developers from making any “public statements” about the terms of the agreement, as well as sections prohibiting reverse engineering of the iPhone OS, prohibiting developers from contributing to the development of jailbreaking and or unlocking solutions, and a clause saying that Apple can “revoke the digital certificate of [an application] at any time,” a feature of the iPhone OS that Apple has yet to invoke, but keeps available as a backup plan should malicious software manage to find its way onto the App Store and users’ iPhones and iPod touches.
Charles Starrett was a senior editor at iLounge. He's been covering the iPod, iPhone, and iPad since their inception. He has written numerous articles and reviews, and his work has been featured in multiple publications.