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VLC For iOS Returns On July 19, Rewritten and Fully Open-Sourced

Posted by timothy on from the media-player-beats-media-platform dept.

An anonymous reader writes "VideoLAN revealed some very exciting news today: VLC for iOS will be back in Apple's App Store by tomorrow (July 19). The company tells TNW the app will be available for free worldwide, requires iOS 5.1 or later, as well supports the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. As you can expect, VLC for iOS version 2.0 will be open-source. This time, however, its code will be available online (also by tomorrow), bi-licensed under both the Mozilla Public License Version 2 as well as the GNU General Public License Version 2 or later."

9 of 203 comments (clear)

  1. 3 2 1 Takedown by kthreadd · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I don't understand how they think this will work. LibVLC is LGPL, and unless they got consent from _every_ VLC contributor or the terms and conditions changed dramatically the last couple of months they can't distribute it on the iOS App Store. Sorry, but you picked the wrong license if that was something you wanted to do.

    1. Re:3 2 1 Takedown by jedidiah · · Score: 5, Informative

      > It's not Apple doing the abusing. It's the GPL that is incompatible with the App Store.

      The GPL predates the App Store by about 20 years. If Apple decided to create terms for it's store that are incompatible with a 20 year old license then that is on Apple.

      It's their decision to be jackasses.

      The rest of us should not bow and scrape and grovel just because Apple has decided it can abuse the rest of us at will.

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    2. Re:3 2 1 Takedown by kthreadd · · Score: 4, Informative

      What are you smoking? A developer ported VLC to iOS. Apple accepted the application. Later one of the original developers of the VLC objected to Apple distributing his code due to licensing concerns. So Apple removed the app. Your position is that Apple should know everything about every single application that is submitted to it? That's as asinine as saying craigslist should know that every item sold using their website is legal and not stolen.

      The original developer objected because it violated the licensed he originally developed VLC under. That simple. You are not allowed to take VLC and do whatever you want with it. You should respect software freedom. If you don't, you don't get to distribute VLC. That's why he could request that the app was pulled, because it did not conform with the license he used.

    3. Re:3 2 1 Takedown by rsborg · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yeah, lets be clear about this apparently...

      The Dev in question happens to work for a competing phone manufacturer

      The developer's name is Rémi Denis-Courmont [1], and while he's the lead developer for the VLC app, also worked for Nokia at the time, and thus the conflict of interest in his revocation of VLC iOS app.

      [1] http://www.tuaw.com/2011/01/08/vlc-app-removed-from-app-store/

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    4. Re:3 2 1 Takedown by psergiu · · Score: 4, Insightful

      One of the VLC devs requested to have it removed because of licensing after said developer was hired by Nokia.
      Note that same developer has not complained over VLC being distributed for Nokia phones under similar conditions with Apple's AppStore.

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  2. how long before HBO asks apple to take it down? by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 5, Funny

    how long before HBO asks apple to take it down?

    1. Re:how long before HBO asks apple to take it down? by Savage-Rabbit · · Score: 4, Informative

      how long before HBO asks apple to take it down?

      The irony is that VLC was pulled from the iTunes store last time not by evil Sith lord apprentices at Apple, not at the behest of a evil DRM purveyor, nor was it pulled due to threats by the RIAA or MPAA, it was removed at the insistence of a VLC developer because he felt that the GNU general public license conflicted with the iTunes App Store license. Apple was apparently not bothered by this until this guy raised a stink about perceived GPL violations, so just this once the evil corporate weasels seem to be blameless. Perhaps this sorry saga also explains the license changes?

      --
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      -- Henning von Tresckow
  3. Exciting news? by Arker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, this doesnt seem like exciting news to me at all. Dual-licensing it to get it in the app store is a failure, not a victory. If the app store isnt compatible with GPL software, then the app store shouldnt be getting access to GPL software. Dual-licensing to work around Apples error seems actively counterproductive to me.

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  4. GPL incompatible with the app store!?! by MobyDisk · · Score: 4, Informative

    This was news to me, and every news article just vaguely mentions it without providing details. For those unfamiliar, here is an article by the Free Software Foundation explaining the incompatibility. and here is another article which represents a more nuanced position.