A lot of people have been complaining about the iPhone NDA lately, especially as it pertains to App Store developers. Just last week, we reported to you that recent app rejections were included in the NDA.

But now it seems Apple is singing a different tune. They have dropped the NDA for iPhone software that has already been released. And though they note they had the NDA to protect themselves from theft, they realize it it “created too much of a burden on developers” and was inhibiting creation, basically. Read the full letter below:

To Our Developers

We have decided to drop the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for released iPhone software.
We put the NDA in place because the iPhone OS includes many Apple inventions and innovations that we would like to protect, so that others don’t steal our work. It has happened before. While we have filed for hundreds of patents on iPhone technology, the NDA added yet another level of protection. We put it in place as one more way to help protect the iPhone from being ripped off by others.

However, the NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone’s success, so we are dropping it for released software. Developers will receive a new agreement without an NDA covering released software within a week or so. Please note that unreleased software and features will remain under NDA until they are released.

Thanks to everyone who provided us constructive feedback on this matter.

 
[via SlashPhone]