Well, everyone breaks rules. It's like saying they're hypocritical because sometimes they don't obey parking laws but expect people to obey their licensing terms.
I think the idea here is that being able to fix your own devices rather than put them in a landfill is a moral stance and such rules deserve to be broken.
Of course it does. I may or may not choose to buy X product because of how easy or difficult it is to take apart and repair myself (and that's not limited to iDevices, as iFixit covers many consumer products beyond Apple's lineup). iFixit is offering a valuable service to me, the consumer, with their preemptive teardowns.
> Of course it does. I may or may not choose to buy X product because of how easy or difficult it is to take apart and repair myself
Then Ifixit should have waited until it's available on the market then did the tear down. They consumed a valuable and limited resource that is known as the dev kit. A dev kit, which I may remind you, could have ended up in the hands of an actual developer and put to real use. Instead, they broke the rules and tore down a product that's not on the market yet.
They got off easy, and anyone who attempts to argue that they are in the right simply have not done their homework regarding the matter.
iFixit traditionally does teardown on the first day of availability. If you need to see a teardown before buying, you just have to wait 24 hours after availability. You'll need to do that anyway in case Apple changes something between dev unit and production unit.
Sure iFixit provides a great service. I happily support them by buying tools and parts from them. "Public service" simply isn't a valid reason for this teardown. It was regrettably thoughtless of them to do this just because they can.
For additional context, please note that the Apple TV device is provided to developers for $1 (would have been free if not for address verification) under the NDA with the specific intent of developing apps for it. It's not like repairing their own device they paid full price for.
The OP isn't using it as a justification for what occurred. They're rightly stating that iFixit breaking a license agreement doesn't then give other people the right to break a license agreement (in this case the license of their app) with iFixit.
If you start going down the rabbit hole of "You violated their license terms so I'm going to violate your license terms" then things would fall apart very quickly. Is it morally OK to pirate Justin Bieber's music because he faced drugs charges? Is it reasonable to shoplift from Walmart because they broke a contract with a supplier?
iFixit broke their contact with Apple, and for that they should (and apparently have) faced repurcussions. That doesn't give anyone the moral right not to respect the license they publish their app source code under (by putting ads on it or selling it).
I think the idea here is that being able to fix your own devices rather than put them in a landfill is a moral stance and such rules deserve to be broken.