Apple Users Forced to Pirate VLC Player? Whatever Next?

[Soprono]

VLC Pulled From iTunes Store

Well it was a matter of time till they did, VLC is now home to cydia. VLC allowed users to transfer movies without having to first make it iTunes/iPod/iPhone Format first, allowing quick transfers of .avi movies....well now its gone!

"The recently released VLC app for iPhone, and the iPad version may soon be gone from the App Store, reports, TUAW. The developers behind the popular VLC Media Player claims that the iOS version of VLC available in the App Store is “violating GNU public license under which VLC is released by applying DRM to it”

 

[ponder]

So let me get this straight....

The main developer of VLC served a legal notice to Apple to remove their OWN VLC App from the Appstore?

I Don't get it?

See post#8

It's a licensing issue.

 

[LazyLion]

So let me get this straight....

The main developer of VLC served a legal notice to Apple to remove their OWN VLC App from the Appstore?

I Don't get it?

Yes. Because Apple had violated the terms of the License agreement. Apple had added their customary DRM restrictions to the app, which violates the GNU license that the app is distributed under. The developer does not want it distributed under those terms. It's his choice and he is doing it as a matter of principle. Free Software should be free, and never restricted. It's a fight worth fighting.

 

[bwana]

Yes. Because Apple had violated the terms of the License agreement. Apple had added their customary DRM restrictions to the app, which violates the GNU license that the app is distributed under. The developer does not want it distributed under those terms. It's his choice and he is doing it as a matter of principle. Free Software should be free, and never restricted. It's a fight worth fighting.

So the developer knew the rules and still submitted the app? As far as I can see Apple didn't violate anything, the developer did.

 

[ponder]

So the developer knew the rules and still submitted the app? As far as I can see Apple didn't violate anything, the developer did.

Which developer? It was not submitted by the main developer(s) & custodian of the VLC project, the one complaining about the GPL violation. The mobile version was submitted by Applidium, a third party developer.

 

[bwana]

Which developer? It was not submitted by the main developer(s) & custodian of the VLC project, the one complaining about the GPL violation. The mobile version was submitted by Applidium, a third party developer.

Then that would be the developer I'm referring to - the person/company that submitted the app.

 

[LazyLion]

So the developer knew the rules and still submitted the app? As far as I can see Apple didn't violate anything, the developer did.

What rules? That Apple was going to attach their DRM to a free product? No, only a moron would assume that a company would be stupid enough to do that. But yeah... against all sanity.. that is what Apple did. Wonderful bunch of people, huh?

You get the nice people in this world who release free stuff... and license it so that it will always be free and unrestricted. And then you get people like Apple who want everything to be done their way (the profitable way), according to their license conditions, damn everyone else except the poor dumb sheep who are mesmerised by all the pretty lights and shiny gadgets and who will follow them blindly into the abyss and even defend them while doing so.

 

[bwana]

What rules? That Apple was going to attach their DRM to a free product? No, only a moron would assume that a company would be stupid enough to do that. But yeah... against all sanity.. that is what Apple did. Wonderful bunch of people, huh?

You might not be aware of the requirements for submitting apps to Apple but the developer was.

“The fact of the GPL incompatibility was already well known,” Denis-Courmont observes. “JB [Jean-Baptiste Kempf, one of the Applidium/VLC developers who ported VLC to iOS] himself described it as a “grey area”. They decided to take the risk anyway, and they bear full responsibility for any consequences. Personally, I don’t blame them because I know very well how a geek feels when writing cool code for a cool new gadget.”

 

[LazyLion]

License incompatibility?

That's just a nice way of saying that Apple are behaving like a-holes. There is no incompatibility, there is only Apple's tyrannical intransigence.

 

[bwana]

License incompatibility?

That's just a nice way of saying that Apple are behaving like a-holes. There is no incompatibility, there is only Apple's tyrannical intransigence.

It's Apple's playground and they wanted in and they came in with their eyes wide open.

 

[LazyLion]

It's Apple's playground and they wanted in and they came in with their eyes wide open.

pretty crappy playground if you ask me. I dunno why anyone in their right mind would want to go in there. Sounds like the Bullies like to entrap people in the playground and then have their fill of treating them badly.

 

[Sputnik]

pretty crappy playground if you ask me. I dunno why anyone in their right mind would want to go in there. Sounds like the Bullies like to entrap people in the playground and then have their fill of treating them badly.

Because, we're just drinking the kool aid and can't get enough of it. Now move along and go get vlc in the android marketplace.