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Do we have permission to re-use iOS sample code from the apple developer website in a commercial app? Are we allowed to use it with modifications? Not sure of how to interpret all the legalese on the source. Obviously there's an "All rights reserved..." at the end, but there also a

"Apple grants you a personal, non-exclusive license, under Apple's copyrights in this original Apple software (theApple Software"), to use, reproduce, modify > and redistribute the Apple Software, with or without modifications, in source and/or binary forms; provided that if you redistribute the Apple Software in its entirety and without modifications, you must retain this notice and the following text and disclaimers in all such redistributions of the Apple Software."

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Seems pretty clear to me... Yes, and yes. If you have any further doubts, ask Apple. – Robert Harvey Mar 9 '12 at 0:03
can never be too careful :) – benbeel Mar 9 '12 at 0:04
@benbeel Please never again post the same question on multiple sites, we can move question automatically to the right site. The version of the question you posted on Stack Overflow found it's way here... So, no cross posts please, they are pointless and make moderators mad ;) – Yannis Rizos♦ Mar 9 '12 at 5:52

closed as too localized by Robert Harvey, ChrisF♦ Mar 9 '12 at 8:51

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2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

IANAL but I'll take a crack at it

"Apple grants you a personal, non-exclusive license, under Apple's copyrights in this original Apple software (theApple Software"), to use, reproduce, modify > and redistribute the Apple Software, with or without modifications, in source and/or binary forms;

this tells me you can use the snippets in your own code in what ever extent you need

provided that if you redistribute the Apple Software in its entirety and without modifications, you must retain this notice and the following text and disclaimers in all such redistributions of the Apple Software."

but this snippet tells you that if you don't modify it you need to keep the license intact

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thanks, Just wanted another set of eyes to tell me i'm not crazy! – benbeel Mar 9 '12 at 0:08
Actually, it says that if you redistribute the software in its entirety without modification, you have to retain the notices. I assume that means you can redistribute snippets or portions without including the text blurbs. – Robert Harvey Mar 9 '12 at 0:09
@benbeel yes, it seems too liberal from apple, doesn't it? :) – ZJR Mar 9 '12 at 0:48
up vote 2 down vote

Most of the sample code has comments that state (this one pulled directly from the classic Reachability):

In consideration of your agreement to abide by the following terms, and subject to these terms, Apple grants you a personal, non-exclusive license, under Apple's copyrights in this original Apple software (the "Apple Software"), to use, reproduce, modify and redistribute the Apple Software, with or without modifications, in source and/or binary forms; provided that if you redistribute the Apple Software in its entirety and without modifications, you must retain this notice and the following text and disclaimers in all such redistributions of the Apple Software.

So modification, reuse and distribution are all explicitly allowed.

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thanks, thats what I thought. We just have to leave that text at the beginning, right? Do you know if the AppStore code-review frowns on reuse? This is my first iOS dev (coming from android world). – benbeel Mar 9 '12 at 0:01
My reading is that you strictly need include the text only if you don't modify the software. So if you wanted to remove the text you'd only need to change a variable name or something. I can't think of why you'd want to remove it though. Apple definitely don't frown on misuse — the Reachability code that I took that from is probably in vast swathes of apps. – Tommy Mar 9 '12 at 0:04

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