Grab VLC for iPhone Now to Play Any Video File
Posted on November 4th, 2010 by mphonenews.com in Apple iPhone, News
VLC Media Player from Applidium can best be described as the Swiss Army Knife of video files for iPhone and iPad, playing every digital video format in existence.
Sound intriguing? Well, you better get it fast because it might just disappear very soon!
Apparently, a formal copyright infringement complaint has been filed against the free app with Apple, Inc. concerning continued distribution of the app under the GNU General Public License (GPL) terms.
The port of the app for the iPhone and iPad was carried out by Applidium. However, the developer of VLC is VideoLan.
Unfortunately, VideoLan, who holds the copyright and licenses the code under GPL, argues that Apple’s own iOS’ inclusion of Apple’s FairPlay DRM is a violation of GPL’s own terms.
However, the case might actually hold deeper controversies as the notice to take VLC down was addressed to Apple, Inc. rather than the third-party Applidium.
Why? Apparently, Apple and their iOS negates the “Free Software” status of VLC, according to VideoLan, since it ceases to be free since iTunes App Store apps cannot be freely distribute in theory. Instead, VideoLan is asking Applidium to rewrite VLC for “open mobile platforms. A subtle jab perhaps at iOS being a truly closed mobile platform? We can only guess.
In the meantime, VLC is still downloadable on iTunes for iPhone and iPad. Grab it now before it disappears from App Store.
Gary Hidalgo is a contributing writer for simonblog.com.
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