After much pressure, Apple has decided that they have been stupid for a long enough time and have dropped their much much-criticized Non Disclosure Agreement from released iPhone software. According to the company, the NDA was an unnecessary obstacle for developers:
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.
Maybe the move was prompted by a certain little green robot's openness but, most likely, the reason has been the iPhone developer outcry. Still, they haven't dropped their stupid gag order about iPhone App store's rejections, but who cares? [ADC via MacRumors]