The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit digital freedom organization, obtained a copy of Apple’s iPhone Developer Program License Agreement with a freedom of information request. They didn’t like what they found.
According to a story in eWeek, Senior Staff Attorney Fred von Lohmann said that the agreement is very one-sided and favors Apple at every turn.
Von Lohmann said that Apple’s terms restrict the use of open source software, gives Apple the authority to kill any application (remotely if necessary) at any time for any reason and bans reverse engineering or altering any Apple service in any way.
“How can Apple get away with it?,” von Lohmann asked and answered, “Because it is the sole gateway to the more than 40 million iPhones that have been sold.”
