Apple is top funder of lobby group that says it represents small developers
I work on DMCA exemption issues every few years due to my involvement with iOS jailbreaking and pushing back on companies like Apple, and the App Association would always be there seemingly trying to throw their all into preventing any DMCA exemptions or painting jailbreaking in a negative light... only, to me, the really interesting is always that their arguments are <i>so low quality</i>.<p>In one case they argued people primarily jailbreak over-the-top set top video streaming boxes so they can watch pirated content... but the website and software being linked to explicitly said that you didn&#x27;t have to jailbreak your device to either install or use their app, as you could just sideload it on a normally set up device (as clearly any normal app can <i>play video</i> ;P). It is as if they are just hoping no one bothers to check their references.<p>(Another time--and I honestly am not 100% sure this one was the App Association, as I am just remembering this one as opposed to having it in my notes on this, but I am pretty sure I remember it being the same guy--showed up to the hearing with a giant stack of evidence against me&#x2F;Cydia trying to show I was actively involved in piracy, and it essentially lost them their credibility as I was able to quickly show every single reference in the stack was to scammers using my trademarks for fake software and that I had even had a lawyer going around trying to shut them down. They either couldn&#x27;t tell what was real and what wasn&#x27;t, or hoped they could pull a fast one on the panel as maybe I wouldn&#x27;t be there to set it all straight.)<p>In another case they (definitely the App Association) tried to argue that jailbreaking devices for purposes of repair (where the device is left back in a locked state for the user but the jailbreak let you replace some part or update some software or something) should not be allowed because repair manuals are copywritten, but that argument was essentially a non-sequitur as I don&#x27;t think Kyle was using original manuals (much less <i>stealing</i> them ;P); and, even if he had somehow gotten a copy, the protection mechanism certainly wasn&#x27;t protecting the manual.<p>Honestly, I am pretty sure I could make a better argument against me for them, and it felt like whomever all was funding them must be wasting their money without realizing it; for a while I had thought about doing a big &quot;exposé&quot; of them with the goal of convincing people who were funding them &quot;y&#x27;all&#x27;s money is going to waste on this&quot; in the hope that maybe the companies who were members didn&#x27;t even realize what the App Association was spending their time on... but I hadn&#x27;t ever realized it was (according to Bloomberg here) mostly Apple anyway (lol).<p>FWIW, as far as I could ever tell, the App Association was essentially (in terms of who actually puts together and argued these opinions) just the one person: Morgan Reed (who is the President and is quoted in that article). I highly recommend looking around at the myriad areas of random politics and regulation that he is trying to manipulate, as they make sure to get involved--no matter how low effort--whenever there is an opportunity for public comment.