The non-profit digital rights group, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has bashed Apple Inc. over the company’s developer license contract with the developers of applications for Apple iPhone and has termed Apple as a, “jealous and arbitrary feudal lord.” The EFF got its hands on a January 2010 iPhone Developer License Agreement, which it acquired from NASA using the Freedom of Information Act request.

As per the details reveleadd in the developer contract, Apple Inc. reserves the right to stop publication of any application it so desires and the financial liability of Apple Inc. in such cases is a mere $50. All the developers who wish to publish their Apple iPhone apps via Apple Apps Store are required to sign this contract beforehand and with their affirmation, the developers also agree to not disclose the terms of the contract. As per the contract, Apple Inc. reserves to right pull out any application it seems fit and can disable such apps on the users’ devices. As the developers use Apple SDK, they legally bound to publish their applications only via Apple Apps Store.

Last year, the EFF came out strongly against Apple, when the company stated that, the jailbreaking of Apple iPhone was an illegal act. The EFF further went to the lengths of requesitng the U.S. Copyright Office to legalize the installaion of third party applications on Apple iPhone, a proposal strongly opposed by Apple.

According to Fred von Lohmann (IP Attorney, EFF),

“That’s pretty remarkable, considering that Apple holds a developer’s reputational and commercial value in its handsit’s not as though the developer can reach its existing customers anywhere else. So if Apple botches an update, accidentally kills your app, or leaks your entire customer list to a competitor, the Agreement tries to cap you at the cost of a nice dinner for one in Cupertino.”

Via PC World