Notarization has been enforced for all apps on the Mac for years. Would the DMA have an issue with requiring signed drivers? Seems a similar baseline. Personally I’m totally ok with that. I haven’t seen a single instance of them not notarizing something or revoking it for something that wasn’t actually malicious.
Gatekeeper/notarization are intended to stop malware, which Unreal Engine is not. Apple may well have a valid business dispute (over another application on another platform), but it's an abuse of the system and control they have to obstruct a Mac owner from running non-malware software on their own computer.
Luckily the court stopped them retaliating in this case, but it gives me reason to be concerned about expansion of the "it's Apple's device and will always act in Apple's interests over the owner's" mentality from iOS towards Mac desktops.
Anyone can sue over unlawful contract terms without needing to breach the contract.
The one finding in Epic’s favor was that Apple violated California’s Unfair Competition law by preventing Epic from linking to an outside payment method.
Plenty of contracts include dubious and outright illegal things, depending on the jurisdiction. I'd say Apple is violating the public trust as they increasingly corner the market in apps and phones.
No, notarization can be turned off on the Mac in ~15 seconds. Open a Terminal and type `sudo spctl --master-disable`. Enter your password and press enter.
You can also right click an individual unnotarization .app bundle and select `open`, then affirm your intention in the scary warning prompt.
P.S. The Mac also lets you disable SIP, install unsigned kernel extensions, and rewrite kernel memory to your heart's content. This is admittedly a bit more involved.
Apple doesn't care about porn on iOS devices, they just don't want it in the App Store. Unless a PornHub app is full of malware, it shouldn't have any problem getting notarized.
>Through a combination of automated checks and human review, Notarization will help ensure apps are free of known malware, viruses, or other security threats, function as promised, and don’t expose users to egregious fraud.
I wouldn't be 100% confident there. I wouldn't be surprised if porn got through, but plenty of other companies have blocked such content under "security threats".
Does Apple charge Mac developers a price per notarization? Because it sounds like that's effectively what they're doing here with iOS developers, since they require notarization and also require a fee per install for distributing outside the app store.
It's a protection racket - pay us and we won't flag your app as malware.
It is in plans though.
I think EU should make alternative notarisation entities though, antivirus companies could do it.
If we care about "privacy and security" here.
Not really. It’s a condition. You can also choose the old rules.. you can also chose to not develop for iOS. There is no gun to your head if you don’t develop for iOS
But the "old rules" were explicitly deemed illegal. Is there a limit to your logic? What if Apple had set the per-installation fee to $50 instead of $0.50? Developers have a choice! If they don't want to pay $50 per installation, they can choose the old rules. There is no gun to their head.
Where is the line? Surely at some point, the choice is so unreasonable that Apple has effectively forced developers into "the old rules," thus circumventing compliance with the new rules, which may as well not exist if no developers can afford to play within them...
Develop for other OS-es. Don't develop for a platform you dislike and have so many issues with.
I never write code for Windows and actively tell any client I have to not use it if they want my product. If they don't want it so much - there are plenty of alternative. If they really want it - they will use the OS I write the app for.
You can install any app you want on the Mac, notarized or not. You might get some kind of warning, but that's irrelevant.
And Apple only allows certain kinds of apps through their notarization process. They can't have pornogrpahy, they can't allow things that could break copyright etc.
