Wordpress for iPhone releases source, potentially violates iPhone NDA?

Popular blogging platform Wordpress might be headed for a showdown with Apple.

The other day, when the Wordpress for iPhone App was released, I was curious about the "Open Source" proclamation at the top of its non-App-Store webpage. I clicked the FAQ and could find nothing more about it though. It seemed a contradiction: iPhone apps are inherently closed source. In fact, open source iTunes apps seem to be prohibited by the SDK NDA. I ultimately just assumed that while Wordpress as a platform was open source, the limited iPhone app was not.

Apparently I was wrong: Wordpress has just released the source code to the app on their SVN server.

It'll be really interesting to see what happens here. Will Apple pull Wordpress' app from the store? Will they C&D Wordpress? If either happens, expect major Internet drama — Wordpress has an army of bloggers at its disposal — and a concrete example of why there's still a reason to have a Jailbroken iPhone and Installer.app.

WordPress for iPhone source now available [Wordpress via The Ukelele Apple Weblog]

[#1 posted by Anonymous , July 25, 2008 8:25 AM]

Hi John, "I was curious about the "Open Source" proclamation at the top of its non-App-Store webpage." The same open source commitment has always in the Application Description in the App Store. So some at Apple approved it, knowing that it was open source. More thoughts on my blog at http://foolswisdom.com/wordpress-for-iphone-source-code-available/
Cheers,
Lloyd Budd

[#2 posted by snej , July 25, 2008 10:20 AM]

"iPhone apps are inherently closed source"

Why? Just because you can't freely distribute a compiled app doesn't mean it's illegal to release the source code for other developers to make use of. The SDK itself comes with a bunch of sample applications that are basically open source.

Now, I've heard the GPL has language specifically prohibiting the release of an app through a non-open distribution channel like the App Store, but that's an issue specific to the GPL (which is evil virusware anyway) and wouldn't apply to a BSD / Apache / MIT / etc. license.

Now, the current NDA attached to the SDK is a problem, and I would guess WordPress is in violation of that. But the NDA, while incredibly annoying, is as far as I know temporary and will be lifted sometime soon (right Apple? Right?)

[#3 posted by Zandr , July 25, 2008 1:08 PM]

@SNEJ:

I suggest you go read the GPL before you claim that it prohibits distribution through closed channels (it doesn't) or claim that it's viral (it isn't).

Actually, I'll hedge on that first point. The app store might run afoul of the anti-tivoization language in GPLv3, but GPLv2 is fine.

Personally, I think GPLv3 is a mixed bag, but that's another discussion.