BetaProfiles.com and IPSW.dev, two websites that offered download links for early versions of Apple software including iOS 16 Developer, iPadOS 16, macOS Ventura, and tvOS 16, have both been taken down recently. Both websites have been removed from service. It is unclear if IPSW.dev and BetaProfiles.com were genuinely threatened with legal action by Apple or if the websites were taken down out of caution when they tweeted that they were closing down to avoid a “legal fight with Apple.” Requests for comment from Apple, BetaProfiles.com, and IPSW.dev were not immediately fulfilled.
Apple Shuts Down iOS 16 Developer Beta Sites
Additionally, it is claimed that attorneys for Apple at Kilpatrick Townsend Stockton LLP submitted a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown request to Twitter in relation to more than a dozen tweets that contained links to sites like IPSW.dev. According to the reported warning, the tweets violated Apple’s exclusive beta software.
As a result of a copyright holder report, all of the mentioned tweets have been hidden. BetaProfiles.com supplied connections to both beta profiles and IPSW files, while IPSW.dev gave users access to IPSW files for the iOS 16 developer beta and other pre-release Apple products, including download links via Apple’s servers, file-sharing website WeTransfer, and torrents.
Users may ignore the warning from BetaProfiles.com that they needed to be signed up for Apple’s iOS 16 Developer Program in order to download the profiles. Apple’s Developer Program, which pays $99 annually in the United States, is the only group allowed access to its developer betas, and it appears that Apple is enforcing this rule by taking action against websites like IPSW.dev and BetaProfiles.com.
Join Apple’s public beta program if you are interested in checking out its betas for free.