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Before developing an application for the iPhone, a developer must agree to a list of terms set forth by Apple’s legal department. Until now, these terms have remained pretty “hush hush,” as mandated by the terms themselves. You may recall that NASA recently developed an application for the iPhone, and just like any other developer, had to agree to Apple’s terms and conditions. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, or EFF, noticed this, and decided to exploit it (why, I’m not quite sure.)

The Freedom of Information Act allows “concerned citizens” to obtain documents from federal agencies, in this case, NASA.

The EFF’s Fred von Lohmann summed up the highlights:

• A ban on public statements, forbidding developers to speak about the agreement.
• Apps made with the iPhone software development kit can only be distributed through the App Store, meaning rejected apps can’t be served through the underground app store Cydia, for instance.
• Apple’s liability is limited to $50, meaning that if a developer sues Apple, Apple’s liability to the developer is limited to $50.
• If Apple gets sued by a third party because of the developer’s actions, then Apple could seek to recoup all amounts from the developer.
• No reverse engineering, or enabling others to reverse-engineer, the iPhone SDK.
• No messing with Apple products. That means no apps that enable modifying or hacking Apple products are allowed.
• Apple can “revoke digital certification of any of Your Applications at any time.” No surprise there: Your app can be pulled even if it’s already been approved, which we’ve already seen happen a number of times.

I must say, this list contains pretty much everything I expected to be found in such an agreement, no real surprises here. So there you have it folks, Apple’s not-so-secret iPhone developer agreement.

Check out the full agreement here (Courtesy of Wired.com)

[Wired]