Out of curiosity, why is GPL software prohibited on the app store?
Similar language is contained in each GPL and GPL-alike license.
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/more-about-the-app-store-...
I anal but why would it restrict recipient's exercise of the rights? I believe as of iOS 10, you can compile your own apps on your iPhone without paying an Apple tax and I imagine the apps have source code publicly available in summer git repository probably on GitHub anyway?
I don't think the argument is that you as a developer are prohibited from using GPL code on apple app store. The argument (rightly) is that you should not participate in that ecosystem because it is a serfdom but then emacs exists on Windows which despite all the overture of "Microsoft loves open source" didn't come even close to saying in practice "Microsoft loves free software". Such is life. You can't win them all, Charlie Brown.
tl;dr I anal but I don't think the GPL prohibits you from putting your app on the app store. Just make sure you somehow give the source code to everyone who installed the app.
If they blanket-apply restrictions to usage of all software redistributed through the store, then yes, they are incompatible.
In order to download apps from the App Store, I have to agree to the App Store terms of service. Those terms say that I will not redistribute anything I download from the App Store. That is a "further restriction" that makes distributing on the App Store incompatible with GPL.
That I might be able to get a redistributable copy via some other mechanism, such as compiling the source code from the developer's GitHub repository, is completely irrelevant.
It is worth noting that this is different from the case where GPL software is included in physical goods. For instance, if some membership discount store sold you a router that contained GPL code, and part of your membership agreement with the discount store was that you could not resell items purchased there for three years, there would be no GPL problem (assuming that the membership store is just buying the routers from the manufacturer and passing them on).
The difference is that when you distribute your app on the App Store, you only upload one copy to Apple, and then Apple makes a copy of that every time someone downloads. Since Apple is making copies, Apple needs permission of the copyright owner, and so GPL is relevant.
The membership store is not making copies. They are just receiving the copies from the manufacturer and passing those on, one to one, to their customers. The first sale doctrine applies, and so the membership store does not need the copyright owner's permission, and so the license terms are irrelevant.
You are perfectly free to distribute the source code to an app you publish to the App Store. The fact that binary compiled from said source code is digitally signed is ... neither here nor there.
By that rationale, PGP signing source code would fall afoul of the same, after all, which is the bit that is compiled - the signed code, or the unsigned code?
But the GPL states that when a user receives a binary, they may request the complete corresponding source code to that software. That doesn't mean most of the code, minus this proprietary bit that handles DRM.