Our Position on the Posting on AppleVis of Information about Beta Versions of Apple Software

With so much interest in the imminent releases of Mountain Lion and iOS 6, it would seem both timely and appropriate to establish the position of AppleVis on the posting of information about beta versions of Apple Software.

As we all know, Apple strives to maintain legendary levels of secrecy when it comes to the release of new products.

In the case of software, Apple do this by requiring that anybody who legally downloads and installs beta or preview versions accepts a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA). Essentially, this means that you are not allowed to publicly talk about the software. Doing so could result in legal action from Apple.

Apple has already made available some information about the new features that will be found in Mountain Lion and iOS 6. This can now be regarded as in the public domain, and can therefore be freely discussed. However, details of how some of these features will be implemented is not in the public domain, which means that sharing this type and level of information would most likely be a breach of the NDA.

Any of our Editorial Team who has signed an NDA will honor it. We respectfully ask all of our users to do likewise when posting to AppleVis. We appreciate that many other websites are providing detailed information on Mountain Lion and iOS 6, but it's entirely possible that they have been given permission by Apple to report on these - and that's outside the purview of the NDA. There are other websites who have, what can at best be called, a 'maverick' attitude towards Apple's NDA.

We, however, need to protect the reputation and best interests of the AppleVis website. If we are to achieve our goal of improving accessibility on the OS X and iOS platforms, we need to respect the requirements of the NDA. Accordingly, we will remove from the site any posts that we believe to be a breach of this NDA.

We hope that you will all appreciate and respect our position on Apple's NDA.