iFixit App Pulled from Apple’s Store
ifixit.org
ifixit.org
They blatantly violated the agreement for obtaining the pre-release hardware, and then expect people to honor their own license terms?
IMHO, they are extremely lucky the worst thing that happened was their developer account getting pulled.
[Edited for clarity after feedback]
I don't know about the downvotes. I upvoted you to try to compensate.
I think people are misunderstanding what happened here, maybe thinking that Apple is punishing them for disassembling retail hardware or something.
The vindictive attitude.
Also, they likely violate EULAs (the A is for agreement) for non-pre-release hardware all the time. Not that big a difference.
I would not condone redistributing copies of software or significant portions thereof in a way which violates the license, whether it be a copyleft license or a commercial license. If apple distributed gerber files for the PCB of the new hardware device, or original CAD schematics it uses to manufacture parts, under some license, I'd also want the terms of the distribution of that to be respected.
But this is something of a different nature. It's taking hardware apart and seeing what's inside and sharing that researched information rather freely on the internet. This is not a copy of source code or hardware schematic. This is learned information. It's not vandalism - there is no expectation that any dev kits be returned, each recipient can use theirs exclusively. This is something everyone everywhere should always have the right to do. And iFixit does, more or less.
What sucks is that Apple can retaliate by exerting their complete and arbitrary control over what software millions of people are permitted to run on their own devices. That's really messed up. This is just one more great example, in case you don't understand yet.
> This is something everyone everywhere should always have the right to do. And iFixit does, more or less.
Most people get their devices by purchasing them when they are released. iFixit have been given the enormous privilege of being sent a developer unit.
> What sucks is that Apple can retaliate by exerting their complete and arbitrary control over what software millions of people are permitted to run on their own devices.
Apple aren't "retaliating". iFixit broke the developer terms. Their developer account was thus suspended. That developer account happened to contain their app.
Apple didn't have problem with them tearing down other Apple devices.
And iFixit got the device because the sign the agreement not to publish the information before it hit the market.
It's not about reverse engineering knowledge. It's about breaking the agreement, which is what iFixit is asking others not to do when using their API.
"In the meantime, we will continue to support our Android app" they say. Not subtle at all.
:)
I think the idea here is that being able to fix your own devices rather than put them in a landfill is a moral stance and such rules deserve to be broken.
Then Ifixit should have waited until it's available on the market then did the tear down. They consumed a valuable and limited resource that is known as the dev kit. A dev kit, which I may remind you, could have ended up in the hands of an actual developer and put to real use. Instead, they broke the rules and tore down a product that's not on the market yet.
They got off easy, and anyone who attempts to argue that they are in the right simply have not done their homework regarding the matter.
Sure iFixit provides a great service. I happily support them by buying tools and parts from them. "Public service" simply isn't a valid reason for this teardown. It was regrettably thoughtless of them to do this just because they can.
That's not valid justification for what occurred at all. They broke the rules, and Apple gave them what many consider a light punishment.
Ifixit has learned a valuable lesson for a cheap price. This was not ok.
If you start going down the rabbit hole of "You violated their license terms so I'm going to violate your license terms" then things would fall apart very quickly. Is it morally OK to pirate Justin Bieber's music because he faced drugs charges? Is it reasonable to shoplift from Walmart because they broke a contract with a supplier?
iFixit broke their contact with Apple, and for that they should (and apparently have) faced repurcussions. That doesn't give anyone the moral right not to respect the license they publish their app source code under (by putting ads on it or selling it).
What else can Apple do? Send the device teardown Police?
They never acted like they did not violate the terms of the agreement, or that Apple did some injustice. I don't see the hypocrisy. Even if they were hypocritical, it is an overrated vice. Asking people to honour their agreement does not become wrong just because they are hypocrites.
I assume that most people were taught things like "Two wrongs don't make a right", or some other Aesopian adage at some point in their lives to similar effect.
Just because they violated Apple's NDA/EULA terms does not entitle anyone else to violate theirs.
Also, your last statement makes absolutely no sense. "Just because they violated Apple's NDA/EULA terms does not entitle anyone else to violate theirs". Wut?
But releasing a teardown of the new Apple TV (and breaking NDA while doing so) is not doing that since, critically, the device is not available for purchase yet. I feel like this move is hiding behind "technology wants to be free and open" while actually making a grab for clicks and views.
You're not a martyr for the cause of freedom in this case. Nobody was attacking you. Apple was holding the sword and you fell on it. Had you just waited until the device was released, it would be a different story.
iFixit are making it really hard to be on their side.
I agree completely. The post and publicity that accompany it are definitely more of the same.
They won an Apple TV in a prerelease developer lottery, rather than being sent a demo unit by Apple like they do with the press.
> Unfortunately, iFixit’s app was tied to that same account, so Apple pulled the app as well.
This doesn't seem like a coincidence: _because_ they are iOS developers, they were able to receive an Apple TV unit.
I'm no fan of Apple's App Store policies, but this one is entirely iFixit's fault.
Not necessarily. It's not clear that Apple's rules were reasonable. If the dev unit is identical to the production ones then an NDA is unreasonable unless it was only under NDA until an embargo.
It's not like iFixit went to a store, bought something, tore it down, and are getting punished for publishing the pictures. They got prerelease hardware for free (technically for a dollar plus sales tax) in exchange for an agreement not to talk about that hardware for a while. Then they talked about it anyway.
If you do accept it and violate it, be prepared for consequences.
This might well be the last pre-release thing they ever receive from Apple. So, sure, things aren't black and white, but they didn't exactly leave room for Apple to respond positively, especially given Apple's rather well known positions on leaked information.
100% absolutely "necessarily". Ifixit broke the rules, and got a light punishment for it. It doesn't matter how you feel on the matter, or if the end product is the same as the dev kit.
They broke the rules, and saying things like "Not necessarily" is reckless and an uneducated statement, which is simply not acceptable in HN comment sections.
I think this was really well written and had exactly the right tone. Please read past the first paragraph if you want to criticize.
We can't see it in the App Store anymore, but how many downloads did the iFixit mobile app have? How many active users? What did it do that a mobile website did not? As they admit, not really anything.
But they're in good company there. There are a lot of content publisher apps still limping along in the App Store, despite delivering little value to their publishers.
Generally speaking, content apps lost and connecting apps won. Everyone just reads their content in their social network or aggregator now. NY Times has to inject their content into Facebook to grab mobile mindshare, even though they have had their own NY Times mobile app for years.
They could spend $100 for a new apple id, fix up the code enough to pass muster, and get it back in the store if they wanted, but like they say in the post, the mobile web is fine for what their app did and they don't want to spend any money on the app.
Tangential, it would be nice if Apple left a tombstone for vanished apps. If I read somewhere to get the iFixit app, I'd go to the store now and download an app named "iFixit!" which is apparently some random collection of manuals.
That's $100/year, every year, right? Apple hasn't yet made their iDeveloper (or whatever) fees non-recurring, right?
Did that policy change in the intervening time? If it did, would you provide a reliable citation? :)
iFixit could get the app back in the store in a few days by signing up for a new dev account. But they don't want to do that because, as they say, the app is buggy and they want to focus on the mobile site anyway.
So, the title is clickbait. Apple didn't censor the iFixit app. But no one would read an article titled "Apple terminates developer account after contract violation".
Your mission is so important. You have gone so far in holding companies accountable for e-waste and sustainability of their products. Please don't screw it up with stupid mistakes like this.
At least it's a breath of fresh air to see Apple smacking somebody down for an actual, legitimate violation, instead of the usual imagined nonsense they do.
They even stated that they knew they had signed an NDA, but felt that publishing their teardown information was "more important" than the NDA.
"We noticed a distinct lack of cables connecting the power supply to the logic board. We're theorizing the power is either transmitted by magic, or through the heat sink screw posts."
Even if you call the TOS an NDA (which iFixit didn't post, which is kind of annoying), you do have to wonder, what did Apple expect to happen? iFixit has been publishing teardowns and helping people repair Apple products for close to a decade.
Would that be the right that they (presumably) signed away when accepting pre-release hardware?
That seems completely unrelated, but it also seems a whole lot shittier.
Why would Apple remove an app for reporting casualties of US Drone strikes? It's basically a very specialized news app.
If a porn website released their own video player as an app, you could call it a "very specialized web browser", but it would still obviously violate the app store ToS.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/crimemapping/id452856454?mt=...
Should that be pulled too?
What about the list of V2 target sites from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10302576 ? Would that be banned?
I suspect what you and the others really want is for Apple to be bound by some kind of common carrier status that prohibits them from exercising their own judgment in what apps they publish. If you actually want that, you should say so. Arguing that Apple should have to publish apps it finds obscene just because the apps don't match your own definition of obscenity IS irrational. Well, strictly speaking, perhaps not irrational. Let's say shitty.
Not just no, but "Hell no". What folks want from Apple is for their reviewers to behave like professionals. Professionals would provide a reasonably consistent, non-capricious application of the App Store rules. The current situation can be described roughly as:
"Your app will be de-listed if some app reviewer got up on the wrong side of the bed. The reviewer will point to a randomly selected clause in the TOU as the justification for the removal. You will be unable to get your app back in the App Store unless you have a large amount of social clout, or another reviewer who really dislikes the first one decides to override their decision. There are no guarantees that this process will not recur an unlimited number of times in the future."
This is not a good foundation on which to build a business relationship.
Could you attempt to use all the apps that aren't pulled, and the $X,XXX raked in monthly by folks from App Store revenues as counterexamples? Yes. Do those things negate my point? No.
> They are consistent enough that I and most other developers have no trouble telling...
You and your cohort must have some pretty powerful psychic powers. :) You should sell Apple App Store Guideline Compliance services. You'd make a mint.
Given that Apple's de-listing rationale is arbitrary and capricious, restricting one's comments to attempts to predict what Apple might ban provides zero value to any conversation.
Their offensiveness meter seems pretty obvious to me. The only thing I'd really worry about is "apps that duplicate OS features" since you really can't predict that without insider knowledge.
Users trust Apple to protect them from malicious and perhaps from low-quality apps, and instead Apple abuses their power to try to silence those distributing information they don't like.
iFixit admitted they broke the NDA and they did so, to get clicks for their sites. iFixIt broke the trust, not Apple.
But Apple broke the trust of their users - by deleting a perfectly valid app in retaliation for a third party doing something unrelated. Any user wanting to see how to fix something is harmed by Apple's actions. Maybe iFixit provoked them, but Apple pulled the trigger.
And yeah, the App being deleted was a mistake. Gotcha.
I don't know that they want to point this out, even if they think they're in the right.
The terms and conditions were very clear in the NDA that the developers have to sign to get an AppleTV developer kit.
Guess what, iFixit used their developer account to get that AppleTV and they violated the terms and conditions of that NDA.
Guess what happened when your specific iOS developer account is found to violate the NDA terms and condition? It gets banned, which is what happened.
Apple did exactly what they said will happen if the NDA terms and conditions were violated. That's all there is to it.