Videolan serve Apple copyright infringement papers; VLC app to disappear into the ether?

By on Oct 31, 2010 at 3:39 PM
General October 31, 2010

It’s starting to look like VLC’s days in the iOS app store are numbered. Videolan developer, Rémi Denis-Courmont, has confirmed that the company has sent Apple papers citing copyright infringement. The VLC media player is currently distributed under a General Public License (GPL), and this has come into direct conflict with Apple’s DRM-based app store distribution model. The conflict of licenses were known to both parties prior to the app’s publication, and Videolan is stressing they are not at fault, since the app was ported to the app store via a third party developer — Applidium. The popular multi-format video player made its debut on the iPhone only a week ago, and its future looks bleak. We highly recommend snagging your free copy before Apple possibly shuts the book on this case.

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  • rederikus

    Once more CrApple shafts someone.

    • deth

      Do you even know why it is removed?

      • rederikus

        Remy wrote Video-LAN a long time ago. ROughtly when teh children at CApple were plaong with Duplo bricks. For may years VLC was THE media player of choice.

        It was one of the first programs to use the then new GNU public license.

        VLC is being removed because, how can it be distributed by a company that is currently ripping off the licence.

        This is normal behaviour for Steveie & company and they will no doubt express surprise at being sued.

        Just because the technology is there does NOT mean that CrApple can just walk in and take it which, is seems, they have done yet again.

        Sooner or later this company MUST be stopped

        Oh yes, I did read the article – every word about the evile empire, every word..

      • Anonymous

        Your ranting must be stopped..

      • rederikus

        Why, because I say what I think about CrApple?

        Not likley.

      • DigitalFreak

        @rederikus I find people like you a complete bore. Sooner of later this company must be stopped???? WHY??? Is it because they came back from bankruptcy over a decade ago and finally started challenging Microsoft and now Google in the market and you don’t like it? I remember that crappy decade of M$ PC dominance and how that company rolled over every single competitor with their money and power. Screw that noise.

        If Google has its way users will be left at the mercy of the carriers with their watered down proprietary Android OS garbage that serves nothing except to stunt future development. I hope Apple continues to prosper and challenge Google and M$ in market share. Its high time both these companies learned that the public are getting fed up with being bent over by their less then honest business policies.

      • StevenHamburg

        google is actually challenging apple, not the other way around.

        i do like it that we have so much competition going on. but for you to think that apple is the all loving underdog is beyond naive. it’s just plain moronic. yes, you are a moron.

        truth be told, google is the closest to being a “moral corporation” of that magnitude. by no means do i say that they do nothing evil, but they do seem to reach out to the consumer and try make our lives easier without having us open our wallets. do yourself a favor and check out “game changers” on bloomberg.

    • BrianW

      Kind of, but did you read the article?

    • Idiot

      You idiot, VLCs developer wants this removed.

      Go play with your Pc and open Android phone.

      • DigitalFreak

        Firefox and Linux are based on open source coding with various coders openly contributing their two cents to development. Considering the Android community don’t get any chance to see the code until the next flavor of Android is released its NOT REALLY OPEN SOURCE. The average closed minded Fandroid will scream BS at this statement but its a VALID TRUE STATEMENT. Google created Android as a OS tool for its partner carriers NOT for the open source community to be able to contribute better functionality and user experience. Fandroids are able to contribute after the release of the next flavor of Android and I find it interesting that most of that code contributed involves rooting ones own handset to remove the CRAP BLOATWARE that carriers force on users. How is this any different from the Apple jailbreak community? Android is just another type of walled garden its not truly open source.

    • http://justmy2t.com geezer77

      you….didn’t read the article did you? An “Open” organization is serving Apple with copyright infringement papers.

  • ibeartouch

    Denis-Courmont is a moron. There is absolutely no need for this. Why go after Apple, it should be an Applidium problem. Some people just like to stir up the s#!+, and oh look a multi billion dollar cooperation I can sue.

    What a scrounging fuck

    • serpentor

      Because what the GPL is in conflict with is Apple’s DRM. That’s why Apple was put on notice.

      • John

        It doesn’t mean, as some are implying, that Apple did anything wrong. This is on the developer’s shoulders, and theirs alone.

      • http://twitter.com/Tom Tom

        Let’s live in the past when George W. Bush was president and the App Store rules were different! Oh serpentor, what an amazing thing you can do, post from 2008!

        The rules changed, and this is a different situation now. This was one developer (not the company) posting to a mailing list (hint: it’s not on videolan.org/news or videolan.org/blog but the mailman.videolan.org page, and he even mentions that his blog has been pulled from “planet”, which is their aggregation of important blogs by developers, so he even denotes that he’s now “fringe”), and Jean-Baptiste Kempf has explained the _real_ situation: http://mailman.videolan.org/pipermail/vlc-devel/2010-November/077457.html

        At least MacRumors got it right, and the VideoLan Twitter feed pointed to the Kempf post too: http://twitter.com/videolan/status/29381243427

        But hey, let’s don our propeller beanies and put tape on our glasses, shove cotton up our noses, and nerd it up without doing any research.

  • JHUK

    Seems to me that all Apple have to do is remove the VLC app from the store and they are no longer at fault. Applidium on the other hand they are the ones in trouble.

    In either case I downloaded a copy in case I own an iPhone again in the future (not likely but you never know)

    • serpentor

      Because the DRM that’s conflicting with the GPL is coming from Apple, not Applidium.

      • John

        And applidium did this knowing full well that it had to be encased in DRM for it to be sold.

        The Android version (and Google) will have the same issue.

  • Norm

    This is why i love DROID OS. Rather than suing or dealing with legal BS some great developer will come along and just take this app, rename it, change some colors and put it back in the store. Hell, there might even be 20-30 versions by sun down. Open source baby. No rules. In a world that DOESN’T. DROID DOES!!!!!!!

    • DigitalFreak

      Sounds like there’s little creativity in the Android store if developers are only copying each others code and putting slightly different window dressing on the finished product.

    • http://justmy2t.com geezer77

      DROID OS?

  • ohmy

    if you have it on ur iOS device, wouldnt apple remotely wipe it?

    • NYClady

      No.

    • http://www.innovatoys.com/ Cindy Auligny

      me neither.

  • Mgl323

    Got this app the first day it came out, it comes in handy when you don’t want to convert video files to mp4/itunes format.

    • Mr.Bill

      The real reason why it’s going bye-bye.

  • NYClady

    Just downloaded the app and I must say it works pretty well.. And if Apple takes it off the site which they have with countless others, they can’t delete it off my phone…

  • http://gim.acanaday.com Aaron Canaday

    What a bummer. ALL smartphone users deserve an app like this. iOS and otherwise. Hopefully the upcoming android version doesn’t get canned as well.

    • John

      It will. The reason they want it removed is because its wrapped in Apple DRM, just like the Android version would be wrapped in Android DRM.

  • RAS

    I have no problem with anybody defending their intellectual property, be it a small group of independent developers or a Fortune 500 company. This will get worked out and VLC will be back. It might even become a Quick Time plug-in at some point in the future.

  • Jono

    For anyone confused, the basic idea behind GPL is that if you make a change and make the final product available, you need to make your sourcecode available too. Apple added DRM but didn’t release the sourcecode for these changes. This violates the VLC licensing. All parties involved knew this, but it was published anyways. The interesting position to this is that Apple either removes distribution or opensource’s their DRM.

  • Bill

    It seems to me that this could all be solved by Apple amending its Terms and Conditions to allow GPL and other open source licensed software to be distributed via iTunes under their respective licensing agreements. That should make both Apple and the open source community happy, and the consumer very happy!

    • serpentor

      What makes Apple happy is having absolute control over anything with their name on it.

      And until they start losing sales or market share because of it, they won’t change a thing.

  • Barlindo

    Testing testing

  • Hans Dampf

    Apple == FAIL

  • A B

    Big fish trying to eat small.

  • kozjegyzo

    I knew this wasn’t gonna last long. I’m surprised that it even made it in the Appstore… It’s too good for the Apple ecosystem anyways :D

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