4 ms·

Remi's arguements were an attempt to get Apple to change the 'personal non-commercial part' of it's licence to something more open. But I suspect that Apple re

Remi's arguements were an attempt to get Apple to change the 'personal non-commercial part' of it's licence to something more open. But I suspect that Apple removing VLC has more to do with controlling what formats you can play, and so where you can buy content, rather than a desire to protect VLC's GPL contributions. Interesting that the super hacker cool Apple have effectively banned GPL from their popular platform and with the Mac iStore may soon be banning it from all their machines. While MSFT is announcing more open source support. Looks like the lightsaber of the dark side has been passed on.

rbanffy 16y ago
> While MSFT is announcing more open source support. Erm... They may support it in some instances.
- oiuyuikuhygt 16y ago
  OK you aren't about to see Balmer and Stallman together in a hot tub. But MSFT haven't banned GPLed software from their platform
  - statictype 16y ago
    I'm guessing these terms are to protect against piracy. I don't think distributing apps via ad-hoc distribution (with the developer license) or through their enterprise program would have these restrictions.
  - rbanffy 16y ago
    > MSFT haven't banned GPLed software from their platform Apple didn't ban GPLed software from their platforms. Apple has terms of service for their software distribution mechanism that conflicts with GPL'ed software. I agree the terms are restrictive and disrespectful towards the users, but I am not sure why are you implying that Microsoft is doing much better. Have you read any recent EUAL from them?
blasdel 16y ago
If format control was what Apple cared about, they wouldn't have approved the app in the first place. Really, they would have left it at that.
CrazedGeek 16y ago
I doubt it had anything to do with format control, seeing as CineXPlayer was on the App Store well before VLC was and is still available: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id384098375?mt=8 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id384098375?mt=8
jedsmith 16y ago
Apple didn't ban the GPL from the App Store. The GPL banned the GPL from the App Store.
- gloob 16y ago
  Their rules are mutually incompatible.
  - jedsmith 16y ago
    Which changes nothing, as it still isn't a conscious act by Apple to explicitly ban the GPL. The GPL banned itself from the App Store, plain and simple, yet everybody will still make it about big bad Apple censoring libre software from the App Store. You chose the GPL when you started your project, Apple didn't. If the license that YOU chose for YOUR software doesn't allow you to distribute YOUR software under Apple's EULA, that isn't Apple's fault. There's also no financial incentive for them to modify their EULA to be more GPL-friendly. They're going to say, gee, those hundreds of thousands of apps on the App Store have succeeded with the EULA we have, why get into legal battles over two publicized apps? The publicity is negative for us, so why bother?
    - ijuhygtfhyuj 16y ago
      On the same basis the USA bans GPL software, you aren't allowed to export stuff to naughty countries if you are American. The GPL doesn't allow you to block Cuba so nobody in the US is legally allowed to use GPL. This doesn't seem to led to IBM, Oracle etc stopping selling Linux. Apple put a line in it's\ EULA about only being able to use app store for non-commercial use, which is ridiculous businessmen do use iPhones and iPads
- wnoise 16y ago
  It's a bit fatuous to assign blame to a license agreement. You can assign blame to people that choose license agreements. In this case, that's the VLC developers for choosing the GPL, and Apple for choosing the App Store restrictions. VLC was under the GPL long before the App Store existed. It's a bit silly to say that they chose this particular incompatibility. Apple when drafting their license terms probably did not even consider the GPL, but their choice of terms is, in actual fact, banning GPL licensed transactions from using the App Store.
originalgeek 16y ago
IMO Apple's removal of VLC has only to do with honoring a complaint issued by a copyright holder. Nothing more, nothing less.

rbanffy 16y ago

> While MSFT is announcing more open source support. Erm... They may support it in some instances.

oiuyuikuhygt 16y ago
OK you aren't about to see Balmer and Stallman together in a hot tub. But MSFT haven't banned GPLed software from their platform
- statictype 16y ago
  I'm guessing these terms are to protect against piracy. I don't think distributing apps via ad-hoc distribution (with the developer license) or through their enterprise program would have these restrictions.
- rbanffy 16y ago
  > MSFT haven't banned GPLed software from their platform Apple didn't ban GPLed software from their platforms. Apple has terms of service for their software distribution mechanism that conflicts with GPL'ed software. I agree the terms are restrictive and disrespectful towards the users, but I am not sure why are you implying that Microsoft is doing much better. Have you read any recent EUAL from them?

blasdel 16y ago

If format control was what Apple cared about, they wouldn't have approved the app in the first place. Really, they would have left it at that.

CrazedGeek 16y ago

I doubt it had anything to do with format control, seeing as CineXPlayer was on the App Store well before VLC was and is still available: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id384098375?mt=8 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id384098375?mt=8

jedsmith 16y ago

Apple didn't ban the GPL from the App Store. The GPL banned the GPL from the App Store.

gloob 16y ago
Their rules are mutually incompatible.
- jedsmith 16y ago
  Which changes nothing, as it still isn't a conscious act by Apple to explicitly ban the GPL. The GPL banned itself from the App Store, plain and simple, yet everybody will still make it about big bad Apple censoring libre software from the App Store. You chose the GPL when you started your project, Apple didn't. If the license that YOU chose for YOUR software doesn't allow you to distribute YOUR software under Apple's EULA, that isn't Apple's fault. There's also no financial incentive for them to modify their EULA to be more GPL-friendly. They're going to say, gee, those hundreds of thousands of apps on the App Store have succeeded with the EULA we have, why get into legal battles over two publicized apps? The publicity is negative for us, so why bother?
  - ijuhygtfhyuj 16y ago
    On the same basis the USA bans GPL software, you aren't allowed to export stuff to naughty countries if you are American. The GPL doesn't allow you to block Cuba so nobody in the US is legally allowed to use GPL. This doesn't seem to led to IBM, Oracle etc stopping selling Linux. Apple put a line in it's\ EULA about only being able to use app store for non-commercial use, which is ridiculous businessmen do use iPhones and iPads
wnoise 16y ago
It's a bit fatuous to assign blame to a license agreement. You can assign blame to people that choose license agreements. In this case, that's the VLC developers for choosing the GPL, and Apple for choosing the App Store restrictions. VLC was under the GPL long before the App Store existed. It's a bit silly to say that they chose this particular incompatibility. Apple when drafting their license terms probably did not even consider the GPL, but their choice of terms is, in actual fact, banning GPL licensed transactions from using the App Store.

originalgeek 16y ago

IMO Apple's removal of VLC has only to do with honoring a complaint issued by a copyright holder. Nothing more, nothing less.