We were pretty excited when VLC, our favourite multi-format video player, dropped for iOS, but it looks like the sun has already set on that glorious endeavor.
Just as we’d heard it might, VLC has been removed from the App Store—though not at Apple’s request. Rémi Denis-Courmont, a lead contributor to the project, decided that the the DRM in the App Store violated the GNU public licence, requesting that Apple remove it. We’re not sure we buy that the principles of the GPL are more important than the availability of a great app—for free, mind you—to millions of users. Worse, it doesn’t set the best precedent for other open source projects, especially with the Mac App Store having similar DRM features. We hope you all grabbed your copy while you had a chance. [via TUAW]
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.