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Is there more to VLC's removal from the App Store?
- pluies 16y agoThe article is very critical of Rémi Denis-Courmont, but isn't it Apple's own fault in the end? They're the ones who decided to make the App Store license incompatible with the GPL.
- cstross 16y agoIs it necessarily incompatible? Do the terms of service of the App store prevent the source code of the VLC iOS app from being redistributed freely? (If not, then anyone with a copy of XCode and an iOS device could compile and install it on their own device, and with an iOS developer license would be free to install on others. And in principle to make and distribute derivative works.) As RMS has frequently noted, the GPL doesn't prevent anyone from charging money for binaries of GPL'd code -- it just requires them to permit redistribution of the source.
- elwin 16y agoThe problem isn't with the source code but with the binary. The GPL doesn't allow additional restrictions on what the user can do with it after getting it, whether it was paid for or not. That's what the developer filed the complaint over.
- tzs 16y ago> Do the terms of service of the App store prevent the source code of the VLC iOS app from being redistributed freely? GPL is not about source access. Source access is an implementation detail in order to achieve the aims of GPL. What the GPL is about is ensuring that the following three things apply to every user of the software: They are free to run the software, for any purpose. They are free to study how it works, and to make changes to it. (GPL requires source availability because source is necessary to reasonably do this). They are free to give away copies of the software (the original or their modified version), as source or binaries. To achieve this for every user, it is necessary for the GPL to disallow distributors of GPL software from contractually or otherwise making recipients agree to refrain from doing the above things. The problem with the App Store and GPL is that the TOS for the App Store requires the recipient to contractually agree to not do some of the above things.
- jonhendry 16y ago" They're the ones who decided to make the App Store license incompatible with the GPL." No. It's the fault of whoever submitted an app covered by an incompatible license. Apple didn't change their terms after the fact to exclude GPL.
- st3fan 16y agoThey actually made a bunch of changes to make the App Store more compatible with the GPL.
- person 16y agoThat article, and most of its reader comments, mildly sickens me. I love Apple, but that doesn't mean I have to approve of DRM. It's crazy to see everyone piling on Rémi when Apple made the decision to use DRM and thereby exclude a whole category of OSS projects. A license is a license, and if DRM is prohibited, there's not much wiggle room. I feel sorry for Rémi, as he'll probably now be subjected to dozens of misguided angry emails.
- mechanical_fish 16y agoYeah, what a strategically brilliant move: fight DRM by removing one of the most popular and full-featured players of unencumbered content from the hands of users. Because nothing sells DRM-free content like making it more difficult to play. And it goes without saying that the sight of a single developer torpedoing a popular project over the objections of both other developers and users is an awesome commercial for open source.
- martythemaniak 16y agoBoth the GPL and VLC were around long before Apple's store. The developer contributed to a project that had a very clear, existing copyrights and Apple chose not to honour that. Simple as that. And yes, seeing apple fanboys jump on this guy because he wants his rights honoured is pretty sickening.