Apple Details How It Plans to Comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act

https://www.macstories.net/news/apple-details-how-it-plans-to-comply-with-the-eus-digital-markets-act/

so much work and then they make most of it "EU only".

it would be easier to make the changes global but ofc gotta maximize the amount of money they make in other regions

A detail I just saw mentioned in a Ars Technica comment about the "alternative app marketplace" part of this.

One of the requirements is:
"Provide Apple a stand-by letter of credit from an A-rated (or equivalent by S&P, Fitch, or Moody’s) financial Institution of €1,000,000 to establish adequate financial means in order to guarantee support for your developers and users."

https://developer.apple.com/support/alternative-app-marketplace-in-the-eu/

This seems like it would make a "FOSS app marketplace" on Apple devices in the EU fairly untenable.

There are other requirements like having a process for dealing with trademark and intellectual property infringement, data collection policies, policies for things like GDPR etc.

Makes it difficult for anyone but a org with significant legal and more importantly financial resources to set up shop as a alternative app marketplace.

the overarching point here is this set of requirements is made by a large corp for other large corps.

and also the key part is Apple is still in control of who gets the specific "entitlement" required to run a alternative app marketplace on EU iOS devices.

I don't think we are gonna have "FDroid iOS edition EU only"

oh another thing:

"Notarization for iOS apps is a baseline review that applies to all apps, regardless of their distribution channel, focused on platform policies for security and privacy and to maintain device integrity."

and

"Apple will encrypt and sign all iOS apps intended for alternative distribution to help protect developers’ intellectual property and ensure that users get apps from known parties."

and

"If Apple determines that an iOS app contains known malware after it’s been installed, it will be prevented from launching and new installations will be revoked."

https://developer.apple.com/support/dma-and-apps-in-the-eu/

Apple has ceded only the least amount of ground required in the letter of the law.

They still maintain control of app distribution on iOS in all but the most meaningless aspects.

guess I'm gonna turn this into a blog post

sorry "40 Years of Mac" blog post, try again in 10 years

"Developers will not need to build browsers using WebKit going forward, but their browsers will run in a new browser sandbox"

I'm not clear on if this is also EU only or not? the MacStories articles doesn't clarify

ah The Verge says its EU only

https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/25/24050478/apple-ios-17-4-browser-engines-eu

@packetcat so you can have yor own browser, but it will run like shit