Apple's Controversial iPhone Developer Agreement Leaked

Even though Apple is making huge efforts to keep talks with third parties under wraps, the company's controversial iPhone Developer Agreement has been leaked on Wikileaks. The downloadable PDF reveals just how much of a burden Apple's NDA was to developers.

Accompanying the PDF file is a summary of its contents, touted by Wikileaks as never-before-publicly-released. "This file is important because Apple is being extremely secretive about the iPhone developer program," the Wikileaks summary page reads. "The agreement contains several controversial terms and claims that need to be discussed in an open forum. This is however explicitly forbidden by the agreement."

And, while the audience is said to be software developers, according to the description, those who need confirmation can go ahead and contact Apple Computer, the same page says. “They will likely not discuss this agreement though. Any registered iPhone developer can download the agreement,” the summary goes.

Finally, Wikileaks hopes that those who take the time to skim through the iPhone Dev. Agreement will start a public debate on Apple's attitude – “This document was leaked because of the extreme secrecy surrounding the iPhone Developer Program. Releasing this document to the public will hopefully start a public debate about the terms and conditions in the document.”

Earlier this month, Apple surprised the industry by deciding to eliminate the non-disclosure agreement that forced iPhone developers to keep coding details to themselves, as well as their talks with the Mac maker. Unreleased applications would fall under Apple's NDA at least until they were released, the new agreement said.

Developers previously reported that Apple's strict NDA was preventing them from communicating their progress among one another, sharing expertise, leading to a great deal of fuss, but also to a decrease in the quality of their work. Some reportedly had to work around the agreement with Apple by paying their friends, so they could be legally classified as project contractors and thereby freely discuss their development progress.