VLC app removed from App Store

OK, I just wonder, if Android Market has similar DRM-related issues that are incompatible with GNU license...

Why are you all still confused, the loss of VLC from Appstore is solely caused by one man - Rémi Denis-Courmont.

Read the news on applidium and you will see the actual message from Apple to them explaining why VLC was removed.

http://applidium.com/en/news/apple_pulled_vlc_off_the_appstore

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"Apple pulled VLC off the AppStore
January 10, 2011

Much to our surprise, we received this friday an email from Apple that said “We regret that the dispute regarding your application named ‘VLC Media Player’ could not be resolved amicably between the parties. We have removed your application from the App Store. For any questions relating to this matter, please contact Rémi Denis-Courmont directly.”

This was a follow-up from an email we received from Apple last October : “On 10/20/2010, we received a notice from Rémi Denis-Courmont that Rémi Denis-Courmont believes your application named ‘VLC Media Player’ infringes Rémi Denis-Courmont’s intellectual property rights. In particular, Rémi Denis-Courmont believes you are infringing their copyright.”

Rémi Denis-Courmont’s complaint came pretty much unsuspected, since we did receive approval from the VideoLAN association before starting the iOS port of VLC. As a matter of fact, some members of VideoLAN even helped us porting VLC to the iOS.

It goes without saying, we still believe the AppStore licence is compatible with the GPLv2 under the which VLC is released. Therefore, together with the VideoLAN association, we’ll do our best to not let this be the end of VLC/iOS.

As a final word, we think it’s pretty sad to deny millions of users the right to enjoy a nice piece of open source software … in the name of freedom."

I look at the situation from an open-source lawyer's perspective: http://woodfordiplaw.com/blog/2011/1/18/the-removal-of-the-vlc-app-from-the-app-store-a-lesson-in-op.html

The gist is that Apple's AppStore terms and conditions are incompatible with the GPL, and Rémi is absolutely right. Rémi did *NOT* want Apple to remove the application.
Apple had alternatives however they declined to do so and sought the easier option. Apple could have easily adjusted their terms and conditions to a per-app basis in order to be allow GPL-compatible terms for the application.

I have seen a few comments complaing about VLC's license (the GPL). All software comes with a license of some kind. Some are more restrictive than others. I know that Apple has a very restrictive license on their software. Just research Apple v. Psystar. Maybe then you'll stop being such fanboys.

To put it bluntly, VLC did not work well on the iPad. The horse power simply is not there for good quality videos. Doing the video conversion on the fly on your main computer and streaming to the iPad is the way to go. This makes StreamToMe a much better iPad app for those with various non-Apple video formats such as MKV.

All that being said, I think it is time Apple loosened the reigns and allowed people to put their own apps on their own device with the understanding that not going through the App Store has its risks.

It is unfortunate that this application came to shoot in the App Store. I think its a blow to the open source community. The developer (compiler) of this application should have ensured that no licensing violation, or at least take steps to correct once the issue has been raised. I am sure most of the parts that have helped to fulfill.

social network development

Ok guys, so now how do we go about getting VLC pulled from the Android market and Nokia market (if they have one).

Lets light a fire and watch the world burn!!!!

Oh please. He is absolutely right. I find it funny that you blame the original developer who chose to put the product under a specific license.

It's Apple with their refusal to let anything on the device without their blessing that's the problem here.

I do post my photos on flickr and I license them via CC for non-commercial use. And yet, I had people use the photos commercially, when contacting them and telling them to either remove the photo or purchase a license I was told similar things to your thinking: "Hey, you put the photo on the internet, so it's mine to take, and hey, how about we give you some credit and you get exposure instead?"

Both is insulting. The first because they seem to think that I need their help to promote me and the secondly the license already requires that I need to attributed AND a link back to the source is required.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy(ed) VLC on the iPhone and I would love to see it supported in the future, but I am siding with the developer.

If you want VLC et. al. on the iTunes store then get Apple to open themselves up. Good luck with that though.

Until then: Guess you'll have to jailbreak the iPhone. Yeah I know the Apple license doesn't allow you to do that, but paraphrase you:

"I'm sure your high-minded principles are far more important than the benefit that millions of people could have had from using a jailbrokeniOS devices."

BSD/MIT/Apache all feel more open to me.