What was the point of VLC for iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch?

[LinLan]

I woke up one day to see VLC for the iPad in the App Store. It was unbelievable that we might one day be able to play MKV/AVI/etc on the iPad without conversion. The next release comes out with massive amounts of bugs fixed and support for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It can't get any better! Unfortunately, we see this not long after. VLC will be pulled from the App Store for violations of the developer agreement and it will never be seen again.

This all begs the question: What was the point? What did the VLC team gain by forcing this to be removed from the App Store?

I guess at the end of the day we'll have to hope HP can release a decent WebOS device that can combine freedom with a decent user experience. As of right now, the iOS devices are best in class in every way except the third party development environment.

[harahara]

The VideoLAN/VLC team has every legal right to claim infringement and pull the VLC app from the iOS App Store based on the GPL terms.

However, I believe this move made to pull it from the App Store is misguided, and it's really the 'ordinary' users are the ones who lose out. This is another sad case where ideology and strict adherence to rules, beliefs and legality, as well as antagonism to non-open systems is placed above the needs and wants of the average user.

I find it ironic that the proponents of those pulling this from the App Store are essentially becoming the entities they oppose - by strictly enforcing the GPL (which I'm sure ordinary users don't know or really care about), they are creating their own closed system.

I know this is an effort to promote open systems, but I really wish that VideoLAN would exercise some pragmatism and not be so fervent about enforcing the GPL when it comes to the App Store. I feel like reaching a large audience (>20M iOS users) with the benefit of open source software outweighs the ideological opposition of the App Store's licensing terms.

Just my 2 cents.

[ScifiterX]

I have to agree. They have every right but it is misguided and not very pragmatic. This does not hurt the iOS App Store model. This does not promote VLC. This removes FOSS options from the consumer. This damages GPL, not in the same way not defending GPL damages it, but it still damages it.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

I have to agree. They have every right but it is misguided and not very pragmatic. This does not hurt the iOS App Store model. This does not promote VLC. This removes FOSS options from the consumer. This damages GPL, not in the same way not defending GPL damages it, but it still damages it.

Clearly not.
http://mailman.videolan.org/pipermail/v ... 77457.html

[LinLan]

I guess the question I was asking was: Why did they bother to send the formal notification of copyright infringement to Apple?

At the end of the day, copyright is not something you're forced to defend. IANAL, but unless I have a massive misunderstanding of copyright you can simply not enforce it and not lose your copyright unlike a trademark which must be actively defended or it can be lost.

We, the iPhone/iPad users, lose out on a really great application and the VideoLan developers lose out on the positive halo effect of having their application available for iOS. a.k.a. the advertising argument. A bit of copyright infringement for the greater good of the whole or what people talk about when discussing music piracy.

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

For what it is worth, I still respect j-b's work and his decision. He has spent a large part of his life building parts of VLC so he has every right to do what he wants with his code and copyrights. I might not understand it or agree with it, but I still have to respect it.

[VigarLunaris]

Well all over the really long Answer written - VLC is a free Player and hosted under GPL. It should be distributed as free as possible. All Kinds of AppStores AREN'T free!! You could take whatever kind of Appstore you're looking at.

I see the Android Store - because i'm using a Androidphone - but i really enjoy also the inclueded option to download Software and Install via USB. So i could decide if i take a Product ( paid or free ) or just decide to take a Software from a free developer that don't have to pay to get the Software hosted. Googles i think take at the moment around 15 Euros before you could host a Software at the Store.

But you could also Host totally free at SlideMe (just for example) and only paying than you are taking some dollars for the Software.

At all - i love that VLC is such a compatible and free to get Player. A player hosted at many webpages and could be downloaded freely to you'r pc. Could be used at many Operatingsystems and also could now be used at mobile Devices. But the way of distributing should also be the free one.

--> AppStores aren't for free <--

At one way the developer have to pay - at the other side the user have to pay. --> Not the idea OF GPL <-- so that j-b says "don't host that way" - i could understand!

At all, most of the Mobiledevices are able to install Software via USB using. So the VLC should not hosted for Appledevices as long Apple thinks they could decide which Software should be hosted and which one not. Android and also Symbian let the user decide which kind of Software they want to install, and also from which source. As long one company says "no way" this kind of Operatingsystem shouldn't supported. As long an Appstore is a opionion - it's ok.

At the end the users decide if they are in need of the offert Software and if their Operatingsystem did not support that the users will decide - to pay another hardware

[ScifiterX]

The conclusions are erroneous:

You shall be able to store App Store Products from up to five different Accounts at a time on compatible iOS-based devices.

This means apps accquired using between up to 5 App Store User Accounts in use on any iPad Touch, iPad, or iPhone. That's 5 accounts (E.G.: momsmith, dadsmith, first_sonsmith, daughtersmith, second_sonsmith) per device. There no restriction on number of devices on which an app can be install in this section. There is no restriction on how many people can use a given device. This just states how many people can install apps on it.

Section IV deals with restrictions on number of devices an app can be installed under a single license. Simply put, any user account can put their app on any 5 iOS devices at a time. (E.G.: Mom can use her momsmith account to install apps on her iPad, Dad's iPhone, and each of the 2 sons' and the daughter's iPod Touchs). Any additional devices would require a second/third/so forth account. It is a restriction but one with obvious technical workarounds. There is no restriction on how many people can use a given devices. For FOSS, this all ends up equating to more or less meaningless boiler plate.

The damage to GPL I spoke of comes in the form of bad press.

[SlimE6]

I hav vlc media player I previously downloaded it on my iPhone 4 and I just transferred it over to my iPad 2 works fine was wondering would it be deleted if I update ???