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Comment by ken | Hacker News Reader

The point may be valid, but it's not what this discussion is about. Apple didn't cut off a user for running unauthorized software on their iPhone. They cut off Google for using a paid enterprise service to distribute their software in violation of its TOS.

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> paid enterprise service to distribute their software

that's the problem - why should this service exist in the first place? It's extortion to have to pay to distribute apps to people who want them, on devices they own themselves.

Not really. Give me your code, and I can upload it on to any iPhone I want, without paying a cent to Apple.

Not without violating the ToS and jailbreaking (voiding warranty).

Yes, and more to the point, they cut off Facebook and Google for distributing unreviewed apps to the general public. So the violation was using the enterprise key to evade app review by Apple. Which Apple does to protect its customers. And so Apple is just protecting its customers.

Facebook already got their access back, I assume the block on Google won't last all that long, either.

Presumably FB got it back after signing in blood that they were only going to use this for internal, non-public releases

I believe Apple will do everything they can to keep them from abusing the ToS, but I also believe Facebook will try to work around any and every restriction applied to them.

Yeah, well, but Apple can always reject apps that violate their ToS, or revoke keys used to work around that. So ultimately Facebook can't win.

Except if they force Apple to nuke all of their apps, which would put Apple in a difficult position. But perhaps Apple could sandbox apps, and prevent them from doing stuff that violates ToS.

Yes, and revoking the enterprise key wasn't punitive. It was the only way to reliably kill the violating apps.

That loses a bit of the nuance. Apple cut off Google distributing software within apple's TOS after Google had already stopped breaking the TOS.

But Google already broke Apple's TOS, so it seems like Apple still has grounds to revoke their license.

Right, I'm not saying this isn't warranted necessarily, just that it's punitive not preventative.

No, they still needed to revoke the cert because the app was still hanging out on users' devices. The only way to ensure that those apps are dead, from Apple's perspective, is to revoke the cert

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