And publishes it in full.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has published the full text of Apple's iPhone Developer Program License Agreement, while criticising the company for its restrictive nature.
Of course, if you're reading this, the content of the document won't be a surprise - more than 100,000 developers have (in theory) read it and signed up to its stipulations.
However, Apple has never made it public, and has barred developers from talking about it too. The EFF filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to get the document from NASA, which is an accredited iPhone developer.
"Overall, the Agreement is a very one-sided contract, favouring Apple at every turn," writes the EFF's Fred von Lohmann, who claims that Apple's position as the "sole gateway" to the iPhone and iPod touch is what allows the company to press its contractual terms on developers.
"If Apple's mobile devices are the future of computing, you can expect that future to be one with more limits on innovation and competition... than the PC era that came before," writes von Lohmann.
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"If Apple wants to be a real leader, it should be fostering innovation and competition, rather than acting as a jealous and arbitrary feudal lord. Developers should demand better terms and customers who love their iPhones should back them."
However, it's fair to say that developers haven't risen up against the terms of their agreement with Apple. They may complain about some of the restrictions, but at the present time there's no sign of them picking up pitchforks to take on that feudal lord.
A significant point: many iPhone developers aren't comparing the App Store to the "PC era that came before", but are rather comparing it with the mobile operator portals in the last decade, which were off limits to the majority of companies now making apps for iPhone.
In other words, many developers are taking the view that a restrictive agreement that could nevertheless help you build a decent business is better than no agreement at all under the old mobile way of doing things.
