iPhone Developer Agreement Bans Jailbreaking [Updated]

2 Apr 2009

In the latest iPhone SDK, the developer agreement (which must be agreed to) states that jailbreaking is now prohibited:

(e)You will not, through use of the Apple Software, services or otherwise, create any Application or other program that would disable, hack or otherwise interfere with the Security Solution, or any security, digital signing, digital rights management, verification or authentication mechanisms implemented in or by the iPhone operating system software, iPod touch operating system software, this Apple Software, any services or other Apple software or technology, or enable others to do so; and

(f) Applications developed using the Apple Software may only be distributed if selected by Apple (in its sole discretion) for distribution via the App Store or for limited distribution on Registered Devices (ad hoc distribution) as contemplated in this Agreement.

As I stated previously, this whole brouhaha has been accelerated by piracy of iPhone and iPod Touch applications. This is just another step Apple is taking to thwart jailbreaking. While many want to blame Apple for this, I still blame the pirates.

Update: I’m receiving reports that this wording has been in the agreement for quite a while and may not specifically ban jailbreaking.

Update 2: TUAW confirms the verbiage has been there since October. Nothing to see here, apologies for the confusion. (I hate you Ars)