With the iPhone SDK starting to appear, a Linux.com article summarizes the concerns of the free software community: the licensing you have to agree to in order to use the iPhone SDK essentially prevent open-source applications. Although I agree this is unacceptable, I see no reason to believe this is anything more than a mistake.

For one thing, what does Apple have to gain from not allowing open-source apps on the iPhone? I suppose that theoretically they could prevent people from seeing the power of open-source and therefor continuing the FUD around Linux… Seriously, you think that outweighs all the bad press they will get?

Another thing: in the past few weeks, we have seen not one but two cases of a bad EULA (end-user license agreement) being pointed out and the company apologizing for it. One was the Photoshop Express EULA that stated that Adobe could use pictures you uploaded for whatever they wanted without your permission. The other was Apple’s own EULA on Safari for Windows which said you could not use it on anything but a Mac. What we are seeing now is most likely nothing more than another instance of a company not thinking carefully enough about their EULA or reusing standard parts and accidentally messing things up.

This is not to say people should not talk about the issues around OSS on the iPhone. It is important that this is brought to the attention of Apple, but I am confident this is no more than a mistake. I just hope Apple does not ignore the open-source communtiy.