Apple’s IPhone Developer Program License Agreement Is An Iron Fist Rolled Up In Paper

Lately, there’s been a lot of attention on Apple’s purge of porn, Wi-Fi and other apps that it deems useless, offensive or otherwise in violation of its policies. It seems unconscionable that Apple would allow developers to sell their apps and then suddenly, without any particular warning, pull the plug and eliminate their apps entirely. The IPhone Developer Program License Agreement shows exactly why Apple has the power to do so: because developers signed it over.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation published the document along with an incisive legal analysis thereof. The organization had to resort to a Freedom of Information Act filing in order to skirt around Apple’s no-comment clause (NASA had to sign the agreement for its iPhone app). Yes, that’s right, in order to get a look at a simple business agreement, tactics used to peek into the bowels of government were employed.  

The sections that most applies to Apple’s recent actions are Section 8, which states that Apple can “revoke the digital certificate of any of Your Applications at any time”, and Section 14, which dictates that Apple will never owe a developer more than $50 in damages. Think they can afford that hefty fee?

As far as the rest of the agreement, EFF says: “Overall, the Agreement is a very one-sided contract, favoring Apple at every turn…How can Apple get away with it? Because it is the sole gateway to the more than 40 million iPhones that have been sold. In other words, it’s only because Apple still “owns” the customer, long after each iPhone (and soon, iPad) is sold, that it is able to push these contractual terms on the entire universe of software developers for the platform.” For the full analysis, including some other key points of the agreement, hit the link. [via Electronic Frontier Foundation]