Steve Jobs’ response on Section 3.3.1

After posting my reaction to clause 3.3.1 of the iPhone SDK terms I decided to write Steve Jobs the following email:

   Hi Steve,

   Lots of people are pissed off at Apple’s mandate that applications be “originally written” in C/C++/Objective-C. If you go, for example, to the Hacker News homepage right now:

   <http://news.ycombinator.com/>

   You’ll see that most of the front page stories about this new restriction, with #1 being: “Steve Jobs Has Just Gone Mad” with (currently) 243 upvotes. The top 5 stories are all negative reactions to the TOS, and there are several others below them as well. Not a single positive reaction, even from John Gruber, your biggest fan.

   I love your product, but your SDK TOS are growing on it like an invisible cancer.

   Sincerely,
   Greg

His response:

   We think John Gruber’s post is very insightful and not negative:

   http://daringfireball.net/2010/04/why_apple_changed_section_331

   Steve

Of course he was right, I had somehow missed that post by Gruber, having only read the original. Gruber’s second post, which Jobs appears to be endorsing here, is indeed, very insightful, and may explain Apple’s motivations for the updates to section 3.3.1.

Read more: TAO Effect

Posted via email from jasper22's posterous