Will VLC be pulled from iOS App Store?

At the end of October, Applidium released an updated VLC for iOS, finally giving iPhone and iPod Touch owners a chance to use the popular media player on their devices.

The move followed Applidium's 1.0 version of the software which runs on the iPad.

Today, it has become clear that a possible licensing conflict may force the app offline.

PCWorld explains:

In addition to being free in the sense that it costs nothing, VLC is also open-source software developed collaboratively under the GNU Public License (GPL), which is designed to promote the creation of software that can be freely modified and redistributed by anyone, as long as they do so in compliance with the license.

In order to maintain the freedom of the software it protects, the GPL imposes several conditions under which redistribution may take place; in particular, the redistribution of the software must be unrestricted under any circumstance, allowing any user to give another user a functional copy under the same original terms.

Regular VLC contributor R�mi Denis-Courmont has said, however, that the iOS App Store violates the aforementioned terms because it uses proprietary DRM to make sure users do not redistribute apps obtained through the store. Denis-Courmont says he has now filed a copyright complaint with Apple, asking the software be removed from the store.

Apple has yet to respond but the software is still available and if you want it, chances are you should download it now.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 1 Nov 2010 20:45

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9 comments

biglo30

Hmmm if i was an ipad/iphone owner I would go and nab this app. To me this is a must have app for those devices.

1.11.2010 21:11 #1

KillerBug

If they really wanted to give apple a black eye, they would just release it for android.

2.11.2010 00:55 #2

biglo30

Originally posted by KillerBug: If they really wanted to give apple a black eye, they would just release it for android. If you ask me thats where it should have been released in the first place. Open source video player for the open source OS.

2.11.2010 02:52 #3

ps3lvanub

Or just release it on Cydia for iOS and normally on Android.

OMG! COD6 TENTH HACK WITHOUT JTAG!

2.11.2010 05:14 #4

SomeBozo

I agree with others VLC is a must have application, it is simply the only player I like and use. I'm certain, being open source we will see copies show up on other platforms in due time. I think this highlight's Apple's desire to control everything and make people pay.

2.11.2010 12:37 #5

JorDogg

Originally posted by SomeBozo: make people pay. It's a free download, whats the issue here?

2.11.2010 19:45 #6

KillerBug

The issue is that apple controls it; you have to get it from the iStore, and you cannot download it strait from the vlc website. It might seem trivial, but it is about a lot more than who gets to sell advertising.

2.11.2010 23:52 #7

SomeBozo

Originally posted by KillerBug: It might seem trivial, but it is about a lot more than who gets to sell advertising. Good Point.

For me, I wonder if Apple will ever learn... It seems completely crazy to me, i think the first and most popular PC, the Apple ][. I would argue mainly because it was completely open and many people had mods and expansion cards for it to do practically anything you might have wanted a computer to do at the time. It seemed to me it was the openness people loved about the early Apple computers and functionality one could get because of it I think the Apple ][ did so well... Then came the first mac, completely closed and Apple wanted complete and total control, in comes MS Windows it's rather open architecture, plus Microsoft promised backward compatibility and standardization, exactly what business wanted. Just seems crazy to me that Apple doesn't allow a more open environment...

I can understand the merits of having complete control, you can help verify your system/environment is stable and of a high quality, as compared to the earlier versions of windoZe, and the good old GPF, or random reboots, not to mention the endless stream of TSR program people wanted to run for some reason.

For me it seems there need to be a balance, and currently it seems Apple is doing so well because they are innovating and bringing to market a lot of what customers want and like, so people don't care about the openness of Apple's environment, but let others companies provide as desirable or more powerful phones with an open architecture i bet you'll see Apple back in the position when they might need another 160 Million from Microsoft to keep them float.

3.11.2010 04:28 #8

KillerBug

Actually, Apple stopped innovating around the time the Mac was released. Since then, they have specialized in taking what has been possible elsewhere for years, and making it super-easy for the most braindead morons. The iPhone was not a new idea...it was just a Windows Phone done better. The iPod wasn't the first MP3 player, not by a long shot, and some have speculated that the name was stolen from HP's "iPaq" which was essentially the same thing with a larger screen and more capabilities. The iPad is just a giant iPod. Apple TV is just an iPod with HDMI output and no battery. Their "magical" video calling has been on cell phones for years...it is just that no one wanted it because it only works on WiFI (just like the apple video calling).

The only thing that they innovated recently was the portable digital camera; they were the first to make a digital camera...and the only reason they were first to market is because the tech of the day made it a worthless piece of crap that was only able to store 10 0.1MP B&W images. As soon as there were parts to make a quality portable digital camera, everyone else was making better cameras...and now the only apple cameras are parts of other apple devices.

Apple does not innovate...and that might actually be their secret to success considering the only thing they have innovated in the last 20 years was their flop of a camera.

3.11.2010 05:26 #9

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