Apple backtracks on open source licence

NEWS Apple has modified its open source licence agreement following complaints from developers about certain clauses. The company has removed an export clause that would have bound the licensee to US law - even if shipping a product between two non-US countries. Apple has also relaxed an 'affected code' provision that allowed the company to terminate a licence agreement if somebody sued Apple for infringement of intellectual property rights. The clause has now been changed so that the licence is only suspended until the claim has been settled. Last month, Apple joined a growing number of companies offering source code for free when it opened up parts of its Mac OS X server and desktop operating system product code to developers.