Apple reasserts control over the iPhone

Apple has updated their developer program license agreement. By adding a few new clauses, the company now prohibits the distribution of iPhone applications by any means besides the App Store. The new agreement also explicitly forbids "jailbreaking" the device. Jailbreaking gives developers access to the Unix core of the iPhone OS, and it enables users to do things that Apple wishes they wouldn't.

In my view, this basically gives the company a legal way of defending itself against someone suing them for cutting them off from the App Store. The underground developers aren't going to abide by this agreement any more than they were abiding the by the original one. But if Apple releases a "patch" that targets one of those underground apps, then the developers will find it very difficult to find a remedy in the courts. I only see Apple doing this if they find that the application is compromising the operation of the phone in some way. But it is pretty typical of the tight control they have exercised over their products in the past.

iPhone users now have even more reason to be circumspect as to teh applications they load on their devices.

Read more at InformationWeek.com: Apple Cracking Down On Rogue Apps