[RKearney]

What people seem to forget is parts of iOS 7 are still under NDA, yet people race to post videos and full-length articles of how "the new beta has 10 more pixels on this icon!" That, plus the fact that there are websites that sell UUID registrations so non-develoeprs can use the betas are the reason this happens.

So, instead of blocking iOS betas from submitting reviews, how about everyone as a whole stops breaking the NDA?

[itafroma]

To be fair, the license agreement to which Apple developers agree has the following clause (line breaks added by me):

> Notwithstanding the foregoing, Apple Confidential Information will not include:

> (i) information that is generally and legitimately available to the public through no fault or breach of Yours,

> (ii) information that is generally made available to the public by Apple,

> (iii) information that is independently developed by You without the use of any Apple Confidential Information,

> (iv) information that was rightfully obtained from a third party who had the right to transfer or disclose it to You without limitation, or

> (v) any FOSS included in the Apple Software and accompanied by licensing terms that do not impose confidentiality obligations on the use or disclosure of such FOSS.

Because of (i), there are very few things that remain confidential for too long due to Apple fan/rumor sites breathlessly reporting every change in the DPs under the notion that it's in the public interest to know.

I'm not a lawyer and this shouldn't be construed as legal advice, but a plain reading of (iii) seems like it might indicate DP-related bugs in 3rd party apps would not be considered confidential either.

[rlanday]

“information that is independently developed by You without the use of any Apple Confidential Information”

I imagine there has to be some provision for being allowed to tell other developers about bugs in their apps (does it have to be on Apple’s official forums?), but I think Apple makes developers agree to NDAs exactly to keep dumbass CS students from trying to impress their friends by telling them how many bugs they’ve found and how crappy the prerelease builds are. I’ve never had a paid developer account, but my impression is that people used to take the NDA a lot more seriously several years ago; I’m not sure if it’s because Apple dropped the price from $500 to $99 or because I spend a lot more time around CS students, or maybe because so many more people have iPhones now, but it seems like even a lot of non-developers are finding it worth $99 a year to get prerelease iOS builds, and everyone is wildly violating the NDA.

[jamesaguilar]

There is no chance that that will happen.

[rogerchucker]

I just never understood the grand benefits of imposing NDA on iOS/OSX pre-release versions. I can't picture this giving Apple a big strategic advantage over its competitors in mobile OS.

[rlanday]

I think a big part of the reason is that they don’t want random people posting on the internet about all the bugs they encountered with prerelease software and how much it sucks, because it can taint people’s opinions of the final product.

[rogerchucker]

I kinda figured that part but to me that's a very very archaic way of thinking given that a significant number of people will eventually break the NDA and hint about bugs.

[krichman]

It's either to be able to sue a rival in the event it scoops their features or to exercise power over their serfs.