One of the most popular applications for watching video on a Mac or PC, VLC finally landed in the iTunes app store, for the iPad and iPhone a few weeks ago, but now it seems that it may end up being removed from the app store.
VLC has a GNU Public License, this means it can be freely copied and shared between anyone, although this isn’t the case with the iPad and iPhone version as Apple inserts DRM code into every application in the App store.
Now one of the original developers of VLC, Rémi Denis-Courmont has sent Apple a copyright infrigement notice, as according to the developer by Apple inserting the DRM they are violating the GNU GPL.
Some people have commented that this will damage the project’s reputation. Maybe so. Blame those who published and/or advertized VLC for iPad. The fact of the GPL incompatibility was already well known. JB himself described it as a “grey area”. They decided to take the risk anyway, and they bear full responsibility for any consequences. Personally, I don’t blame them because I know very well how a geek feels when writing cool code for a cool new gadget.
So if you haven’t already got VLC for your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, now might be a good time to download it.
via Mobile Crunch
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