Apple Bans iFixit Developer Account and Removes App After Apple TV Teardown

[nt5672]

Apple's NDA doesn't state opening or showing off the AppleTV would compromise anything. They just stated, if you want this piece of equipment don't show it off until it's released to the public or your dev account will be banned.

Technically you are correct, but it was clear that it was in the terms and conditions for receiving one and those terms and conditions were effectively an NDA. And receiving it bound you to the terms. So I don't see your point?

 

[rdlink]

I'm sorry, but what the hell were Apple expecting iFixit to do with the Apple TV? Develop their App for it?

Riiiiight...

Oh, I don't know. Perhaps respect the the contract they signed...?

This was a lottery. It was probably a fairly automated system, and it wouldn't surprise me if the "winners" list wasn't even vetted by a human being. Apple offered this program to valid developers, who had signed contracts that included an NDA. They had every right to expect the contracts would be honored by the entities signing them.

But as another poster so eloquently stated, iFixit posts how-to videos, and had an app for serving those videos. It would make perfectly logical sense from Apple's standpoint that they wanted to develop their app to allow users to watch the videos on the, umm video platform that is Apple TV...

Person above me has provided a pretty good explanation
Apple is in the wrong in my opinion, but they had the rights to do it so you can't exactly dispute that.

Your opinion is objectively wrong.

 

[Popeye206]

Good to see this happen... so many people think it's okay to just ignore NDA's. As much as I love rumors, it is a brutally competitive market out there now and leaks just give competitors more time to make course corrections on their end.

 

[nt5672]

IMO, this is a legal gray zone. While there is a confidentially agreement with the existing Apple TV beta, iFixIt is a journalism site.

There are many court cases where journalists have been off the hook from any liability on breaking confidentially on grounds of First Amendment. In fact, Apple's actions could be viewed as an vengeful act. It was Apple's mistake to send an Apple TV beta to a developer that's a known journalist. . . . . .

Nope, in those cases the journalist received confidential information from a third party without any contract between them and owner of the intellectual property. That is completely different. It is not legal to just state the information in and of itself is confidential. That binds no one (except government information, which means the laws don't apply). The binding is to the person or company that agrees to the contract. If iFixit had received the AppleTV from another developer, then that would be different, as it would be the other developer that broke the contract.

 

[Rogifan]

There's apple again, just ruining the fun

Ruining what fun? People couldn't wait until the Apple TV actually went on sale to see a teardown? Seriously?

 

[pubwvj]

While I like the iFixIt site and have used it to do repairs I am appalled at how foolish they were. Of course they're going to get their hand slapped for doing that. They knew they were doing wrong.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Some astounding quotes here. Even dumb animals understand the concept that if they play with fire they could get burned. Amazing that Apple enforces it's contract w/ a dev and people are upset at Apple even as the dev admits he understood the risk of posting.

 

[dec.]

Yea, but this was Apple's fine print! They would still be at it a month later. I guess everyone here read their IOS 9 update agreement in full?

...but, but.. that contract contained faaaaar too much text, so surely it cannot be valid!!!!

 

[Chupa Chupa]

IMO, this is a legal gray zone. While there is a confidentially agreement with the existing Apple TV beta, iFixIt is a journalism site.

There are many court cases where journalists have been off the hook from any liability on breaking confidentially on grounds of First Amendment. In fact, Apple's actions could be viewed as an vengeful act. It was Apple's mistake to send an Apple TV beta to a developer that's a known journalist. Was the Apple TV beta developer list generated from the lottery reviewed by personnel or was it just sent off to a distribution center?

If any attorney starting their career is interested in making a name for themselves, taking on Apple on this issue pro-bono or share of settlement could be a good one.

Yes, but none of the current good case law is going to extend to the dev's right to a dev account or to have an iOS app, as that is commerce, not journalism. Also, since iFixit is primarily a company that sell parts, not information current case law would be a loose fit if at all.

 

[rfrmac]

After the new fourth-generation Apple TV was announced on September 9, Apple provided developers with Apple TV Dev Kits to be used to create tvOS apps for the device. Teardown site iFixit took apart one of those Apple TV units meant for developers and has now run into some repercussions for doing so.

According to a post on the iFixit blog, the teardown, which unveiled all of the internal components of the new Apple TV, violated Apple's terms and conditions. As a result, iFixit's developer account was banned, leading to the removal of the iFixit app from the App Store.

iFixit's Apple TV unit was sent directly from Apple with the same restrictions placed on Apple TV units sent to other developers, but iFixit ignored the fine print. "We weighed the risks, blithely tossed those risks over our shoulder, and tore down the Apple TV anyway," reads the blog post.With the iFixit app removed from the Apple Store, iFixit is instead planning to revamp its mobile website and does not have plans to rewrite the app. The decision to focus on the iFixit mobile site came before the app was pulled by Apple, so it was not a huge loss to iFixit. The site says the app was outdated and riddled with bugs caused by iOS 9.

Following the release of Apple TV Developer Kits, many other developers shared photos, unboxings, and feature tidbits about the device. It is unknown if Apple has also contacted these developers about non-disclosure violations.

Article Link: Apple Bans iFixit Developer Account and Removes App After Apple TV Teardown

 

[jaded-mandarin]

Oh, I don't know. Perhaps respect the the contract they signed...?

This was a lottery. It was probably a fairly automated system, and it wouldn't surprise me if the "winners" list wasn't even vetted by a human being. Apple offered this program to valid developers, who had signed contracts that included an NDA. They had every right to expect the contracts would be honored by the entities signing them.

But as another poster so eloquently stated, iFixit posts how-to videos, and had an app for serving those videos. It would make perfectly logical sense from Apple's standpoint that they wanted to develop their app to allow users to watch the videos on the, umm video platform that is Apple TV...



Your opinion is objectively wrong.

I'm not saying Apple is wrong to enforce the ramifications of breaching the NDA. I'm simply stating the silliness of the whole situation. Most famous company in the world for tearing apart new Apple products gets hold of a new piece of Apple hardware.

All I'm saying is did Apple really expect anything else to happen?

 

[nStyle]

This is the sort of activity that ruins things for everyone.

No it's not? It's an isolated incident between iFixit and Apple which in no way affects anyone else.

 

[nStyle]

Love iFixIt and what they contribute. That being said...

They break Apple's NDA and licensing agreement then ask their users not to do the same. Hmm

FTA:
"(Our old app is open source if you’d like an example to build upon. Just respect our license and don’t put ads in it.)"

Classic case of "do as I say, not as I do".

 

[rfrmac]

iFixit, you know better. Don't you want the same protection for your stuff? You ought to fire who decided to go ahead with this. Laws are for everyone but you, right? I have no sympathy for you at all in this case.

 

[Gasu E.]

This is incredibly petty of Apple. It's not like iFixIt showing us the guts of the Apple TV hurt them in any way.

It sounds like this is them "making an example out of" iFixIt to scare other devs into following the agreements to the letter. Still, pretty petty in my opinion. iFixIt contributes a lot to the community.

Apple either defends its Terms and conditions, or doesn't. There's no such thing as a "oh, we maybe should allow this one VERY PUBLIC exception, he's such a nice guy" one time exception. Once they open the door in such as public way, they might as well kiss goodbye the hope that other developers will follow their agreements. And that will hurt Apple plenty. So you assertion, that this wouldn't hurt Apple if Apple failed to make an example of it, is dead wrong.

 

[Gasu E.]

Um, Apple, you gave an Apple TV to an outfit with only one poorly-maintained app in the marketplace, and which has a reputation for taking gadgets apart and posting their guts online, and you didn't think this would happen?

I am not saying iFixit doesn't deserve any of this, but seriously, who does the QC at Apple when it comes to deciding who gets to have an Apple TV? That's an ATV that could have gone to a more deserving app developer with a better track record.

I imagine they paid their developer fees and were in good standing... until now.

 

[appahappa]

I think Apple's move is ok. Apple provides those devices to developers so that they can start programming new apps for the device before the official release. There are a lot of developers who couldn't get one and now some one is just destroying the scarce hardware and no one is really benefiting from it. As someone already wrote, why the hell did Apple give them an Apple TV in the first place? I know developers with several apps that could be ported to the Apple TV and they where rejected.

 

[croooow]

Either this is sarcasm or I'm really surprised a developer would do anything like this. There are NDAs and contracts in place and I'm surprised they only terminated your membership for a year, that's pretty generous for what you did.

I am very sure that was a sarcastic post.

And I guess Apple's shut down all the other dev accounts of people who've written or tweeted about getting a new Apple TV and its various features.

What? They HAVEN'T shut down those accounts?

Apple would be in their rights to do that.

I would guess that Apple sees a big difference between a tweet with a low res photo of the kit (which looks basically just like the unit Apple displayed themselves to the public) and high res photos of the unit taken apart, so that other companies can learn from it. Both are examples of ways to "display the Apple TV Developer Kit" but one goes a bit further. But you are right, those other developers are in the wrong as well.

 

[tomnavratil]

I am very sure that was a sarcastic post.

That's my guess too but after reading all the comments in this thread, I'm not 100%, which is quite sad .

 

[unplugme71]

Apple is a public company not the Government, they don't have the power to fine anyone, at most they can sue.

Thanks for stating the obvious.

Yeah but you make huge monney to make a video if you are the first... Few weeks later the Web will be flooded with Apple TV unboxing and ifixit video will vanishing in that amount... But I agree, a nda is a nda.

That's true but now they won't have that opportunity again without starting a new identity with a new registered agent name and hope Apple doesn't catch it.

Sarcasm or a true believer? Hard to tell, it's so on the nose.

Beautiful if sarcasm, worrying if not.

I was being serious on this. It's annoying when companies break NDAs. I hope the courts screw them hard if Apple does more than just ban their account.

 

[Kajje]

What's the repairability score nowadays for a developer account?

 

[paross]

Why is Apple so hell bent on people not repairing their own devices???

Soldering components to the board, proprietary hard drives which nobody else makes and now this?

Apple of 2015 is starting to feel a lot like Dell of 2000.

 

[Krevnik]

I would guess that Apple sees a big difference between a tweet with a low res photo of the kit (which looks basically just like the unit Apple displayed themselves to the public) and high res photos of the unit taken apart, so that other companies can learn from it. Both are examples of ways to "display the Apple TV Developer Kit" but one goes a bit further. But you are right, those other developers are in the wrong as well.

I agree that the difference is in what was shown. Showing off something at was already on stage may or may not be a violation, but doesn't leak any new information. Showing off the engineering work though? If I were a competitor in this space, I'd be all over this (Roku, TiVo, Cable/Satellie box folks, Xbox, etc) trying to glean what I could. That one month head start is still a month head start.

There must be something more to the story. Why would iFixit choose now to violate an NDA? Is this the first time that they've had access to prereleased hardware?

It is the first time they've had access. Apple has only done this lottery once before with the Watch.

 

[33scottie33]

Pride is before a crash!

"We weighed the risks, blithely tossed those risks over our shoulder, and tore down the Apple TV anyway," reads the blog post.

Proverbs 16:18 - Pride is before a crash, And a haughty spirit before stumbling.

 

[yaxomoxay]

Pride is before a crash!

"We weighed the risks, blithely tossed those risks over our shoulder, and tore down the Apple TV anyway," reads the blog post.

Proverbs 16:18 - Pride is before a crash, And a haughty spirit before stumbling.

iFixit should be glad that Apple does not bother to ask for damages.
I am appalled by the amount of people that don't understand how serious a NDA is.