Back in July, I had a post titled &*%#ing NDA wherein I discussed the problems of the NDA surrounding development for the iPhone. To wit, an NDA surrounding the iPhone SDK makes it difficult for developers to communicate, share code, share ideas, and generally work as efficiently as possible. It stymied developers and it was a major hurdle preventing iPhone development from being as good as it could be.

I'm happy to say that as of today, that NDA is gone (or going, anyway). The following message can currently be found on the front page of Apple's iPhone portal:

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.

In short, this means developers can post code and discuss development on open mailing lists, authors can write and publish books, and conferences on developing for the iPhone can take place free from legal worry.

There are no two ways about - today is a good day for iPhone development. That's good for developers, and customers too.