Are the days of multimedia player VLC on App Store from Apple counted? It is what could result from the polemic, transfering even with the legal imbroglio, which has made rage for one week. It is at this time that Remi Denis-Courmont sent at Apple an official notification to inform it that the version iOS (iPad, iPhone, iPod touch) of VLC Media Player enfreint his royalties to the glance of the GPLv2 licence under which is published this open software source.
According to Remi Denis-Courmont, the conditions of use of App Store lay down rules which are in contradiction with the principles of the licence of VLC which stipulate in particular that it is interdict to restrict the use of the software. Mr. Denis-Courmont is constant in his step by Free Software Foundation (FSF), which already crossed iron with Apple in connection with the play GNU Go which ended up being withdrawn of App Store.
The initiative was not appreciated by Applidium, the French editor of VLC on iOS, and by VideoLAN, the association which manages the development of this open software source born into 1996 of work of pupils of the central School. “It is much of noise for nothing. All these protagonists know each other well. They could have discussed that and have regulated the problem without making display of it”, deplores Romain Goyet, cofounder of Applidium. Instead of that, the polemic swells and updates the dissensions of the open community source.
The source code available
Flashback. Applidium, editor of applications for mobile terminals, decides to adapt VLC on iOS. The reader is recognized universally and very snuffed for his simplicity and his capacity to recognize the majority of the existing video formats. An ideal tool for the users of iPhone, iPad and iPod touch whose native multimedia player supports certain formats with the detriment of the others.
Applidium chooses to diffuse VLC free and to publish its source code. “We did that at the same time for the beauty of the gesture and in order to show our technical expertise”, explains Romain Goyet. Consulted, VideoLAN supports the project in only one condition: name VLC being the subject of a deposit of royalty, it is agreed that it is the association which publishes the application on App Store.
But of the administrative details delay the creation of the account of VideoLAN, and Applidium publishes finally itself VLC. Immediate success, the application adds up more than 1 million remote loadings in the one month space.
The marked FSF to use VLC with fine policies
The polemic started by the intervention of Remi Denis-Courmont emerges then: this business is before all a “question of principle”. “That made seven years that I take part voluntarily in VLC, that represents thousands of work hours. The least of the things which one can expect is than the terms of licence LPG are respected”, it explained us.
However, for Jean-Baptiste Kempf, president de VideoLAN, the terms of App Store recognize the preeminence of a third licence, because Apple amended them in this direction. “Apple modified these conditions several times. One does not know when the changes date”, underlines it. In a text of development published Sunday, Mr. Kempf compares in detail the conditions of App Store and does not find there contradiction obvious with the GLPv2 licence.
“The terms of App Store can or not be compatible with the GLPv2 licences and VLC, all depends on interpretation”, writes it. “My direction there has is no problem, but we will have to ensure us. If there is no consensus, we will ask for the withdrawal of the application”, declared us president de VideoLAN.
This last recognizes the legitimacy of the request of Remi Denis-Courmont, but denounces the attitude of Free Software Foundation. “I do not appreciate at all that people use VLC to put forward their political opinions. That is true that it is of Apple, Microsoft, Google or the FSF.”
An opinion shared by Applidium. “I want some with people of the FSF which threw oil on fire by presenting this business like a fight against Apple and its will to impose DRM”, denounces Romain Goyet. On its side, Apple does not have for the moment not taken position, it was satisfied to relay the complaint of Remi Denis-Courmont in Applidium. The serial does nothing but start.
