Not long after the VLC media player application was released for iOS on the App Store, lead developer Rémi Denis-Courmont has requested that Apple remove the application from the store due to Apple’s limitations on app sharing, which currently restrict copies of the application to five copies when distributed outside of the App Store.
Since VLC is currently licensed under GPL v2, one of the main requirements for the validity of the license is the free availability of the program without restrictions on distribution. As Apple restricts the availability of the application via the 5 copy limitation outside of the App Store, Apple is in effect violating the spirit and letter of the GPL with its own Terms and Conditions which specify such limitations.
Apple isn’t violating the GPL license. They are not a party to the license just because the developer chose to distribute the app through the App Store.
The developer chose to distribute the app through a mechanism that doesn’t allow him to meet the GPL obligations. The developer is at fault, not Apple.
Nice try OSS fanboys…
Not to mention that the developer can pull an app at any time with a click inside iTunes Connect. I’m not sure why there’s this much-ado-about-nothing that the developer “made a request.”
Though, in my opinion, GPLv2 code is fine on iOS (VLC is GPLv2, not GPLv3), it’s merely GPLv3-based apps that cannot legally run on the platform at this time. Yes, I know people disagree with that, but, I have yet to hear a compelling argument why GPLv2 should be prohibited, iOS itself is underpinned by large chunks of GPLv2 code.
[…] started his crusade to pull the app from iTunes last October due to his complaints that Apple did not comply with the spirit and letter of the GPLv2 license […]
[…] started his crusade to pull the app from iTunes last October due to his complaints that Apple did not comply with the spirit and letter of the GPLv2 license […]