iPhone app developers report to OpenClip.org immediately. System-wide copy and paste is here.

MagicPad, the advanced notepad iPhone and iPod Touch application that features the ability to copy and paste is great — but it also is something of a tease because that copy and paste functionality is limited to working within only that app itself. Tonight that changes.

The developers of MagicPad, Proximi have teamed up with other developers to create OpenClip.org, a non-profit, open-source project to get copy and paste functionality working system-wide on the iPhone and iPod Touch. The site for the project just launched tonight and features a video (embedded below) by Cali Lewis of GeekBrief.tv showing how it will work.

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You might be thinking that you’ve seen such a demo before, since Proximi put together a video showing how this could theoretically work. But here’s the big difference — the OpenClip group has figured out how to get copy and paste working without violating Apple’s SDK. This is big, big news as any application that chooses to implement OpenClip’s code will now have copy and paste working with the other apps also running it.

Apple doesn’t allow applications to run in the background on the iPhone and iPod Touch, so to get around that problem, the OpenClip solution uses a shared space area of the SDK to store information that can then be accessed by multiple applications.

The apps currently supporting OpenClip.org are Dial Zero, Twittelator, Cocktails, WordPress, MagicPad and Ultralingua. WordPress, Twittelator and Ultralingua have compatible apps coming shortly, the other three have only just pledged their support thus far.

This solution came about after the Proximi team met with developer Zac White at the iPhoneDevCamp2 in San Francisco, Calif. a few weeks ago. Apple is still thought to be working on a copy and paste solution of its own, but why wait while they continue to drag their feet?

Proximi co-founder Brian Radmin tells me that the group hasn’t yet been in contact with Apple. They are hopeful that this launch opens up some discourse.

See the solution in action below. And app developers: Get to OpenClip.org!

Cut and Paste for iPhone from Cali Lewis on Vimeo.