14 DAY TRIAL // Rémi Denis-Courmont, one of the leading developers behind the VLC Media Player, has announced that a formal notification of copyright infringement has been sent to Apple regarding the distribution of their VLC media player for iOS devices.
The developer outlines for those interested in the details that VLC Player is free software licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
By restricting free and open distribution of applications by applying Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection, which prevents users from freely sharing iOS applications that are distributed through the iTunes App Store, Apple is violating the terms of the GPL, Denis-Courmont claims.
His announcement, posted to the videolan.org site, has been reproduced below for Softpedia readers.
“Today, a formal notification of copyright infringement was sent to Apple Inc. regarding distribution of the VLC media player for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. VLC media player is free software licensed solely under the terms of the open source GNU General Public License a.k.a. GPL).
Those terms are contradicted by the products usage rules of the AppStore through which Apple delivers applications to users of its mobile devices.
At the time of writing, the infringing application is still available. However, it is to be expected that Apple will cease distribution soon, just like it did with GNU Go earlier this year in strikingly similar circumstances: http://www.fsf.org/news/2010-05-app-store-compliance.
Thus, users of iOS-based devices would be deprived of VLC media player, as a consequence of the intransigently tight control Apple maintains over its mobile applications platform. In any case, while the rules for distribution of open-source or "free" (as in speech) software are extremely relaxed, they do exist and have to be abode by.
VLC and open-source software in general would not have reached their current quality and success if it had not been for their license. Therefore, blatant license violation cannot be tolerated at any rate. Concerned users are advised to look for application on more open mobile platforms for the time being."
Rémi goes to mention that some believe this will damage the project's reputation. He acknowledges that this is, indeed, a possibility, but argues that GPL incompatibility was already well known, and that Jean-Baptiste, the developer of the iPad app himself, described it as a "grey area".
“They decided to take the risk anyway, and they bear full responsibility for any consequences,” Rémi believes.
Update: article updated to correct a reference to a person quoted by Rémi Denis-Courmont.