Some amount of hullabaloo has arisen in the past few days over a note in the Android Market terms of use, indicating that the Android Market contains a “kill switch” that can be used to disable applications that “violate the developer distribution agreement”.
The obvious comparison is to the “kill switch” on the iPhone and the litany of applications that have been removed, some on fairly flimsy grounds. The fear is that Android, despite its philosophy of openness, is heading down the same path.
However, people are drawing parallels to the iPhone that are far from certain.
First, there is the matter of this “developer distribution agreement”. We don’t know what it is just yet. It would not appear to be the “Android Software Development Kit License Agreement” that developers signed when they downloaded the SDK, as that document bears little on distribution. More likely, this is an agreement between developers and Google for placing applications in the Android Market. Since the Market is not yet open for business, few people have seen this agreement or know what it says. Until we see that agreement, it is difficult to say how frequently this “kill switch” might be employed, and whether it would be justified.
Second, since this language appeared in the Android Market terms of service, it stands to reason it covers the Android Market. As I noted in last week’s post, there are other markets out there, and the number keeps increasing. Moreover, developers can distribute their applications directly, without a market, if they so choose. If you don’t like the idea of a “kill switch”, don’t buy your apps from the Android Market.
Finally, the existence of a “kill switch” should not be a major problem. Rather, it is the indiscriminate use of the “kill switch” that is a problem. Apple has used their “kill switch” to eliminate applications that appear, at most, to be merely inconvenient for Apple. That use of force is what drives the sense of outrage, more so than the fact that the force is merely possible. If Google has a well-described and fair set of conditions under which it will apply its “kill switch”, and if those conditions only apply to the Android Market, and if Google abides by its own rules, then problems should be minimal.
If, on the other hand, Google behaves irresponsibly, and uses the “kill switch” to get rid of apps that it merely does not like, particularly ones installed outside the Android Market…then we have a big problem. Such a move would represent a tremendous breach of trust, and openness is built upon trust. But, until such time as Google screws up, and until such time as we have enough information to judge such screw-ups, let’s not cast aspersions upon Google merely because other firms have themselves screwed up.
