VLC iOS developers respond to app's removal
updated 04:45 pm EST, Mon January 10, 2011
Claim app had help from VideoLAN
Applidium is mystified at the iOS VLC app being pulled from the App Store, according to one of the developers. Romain Goyet comments that on Friday, the company received an e-mail from Apple informing them of the decision. "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," the message reads.
Denis-Courmont is one of the chief figures behind the VLC project. The software is supposed to be open-source, and Denis-Courmont has argued that there is an inherent conflict between the GNU General Public License and the terms Apple has imposed via the App Store. Versions of VLC are available for Windows, Mac, Linux and still other platforms.
Goyet argues that Applidium not only got permission from VLC curator VideoLAN, but that it even had help from some people at the association during the porting process. "It goes without saying, we still believe the AppStore licence is compatible with the GPLv2 under the which VLC is released," he writes. "Therefore, together with the VideoLAN association, we'll do our best to not let this be the end of VLC/iOS."
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Joined: Dec 1999
What a baby
Denis-Courmont comes off as an open-source extremist. You'd rather deprive happy users like me of VLC because the free app doesn't have the option of the free license you want? Quit acting like Don Quixote charging at windmills (in this case Apple). You only hurt the cause.