[vlc-devel] VLC on AppStore under the name 'GoodPlayer' ?

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Le samedi 19 novembre 2011 23:02:02 Felix Paul Kühne, vous avez écrit :
> > AFAIK anyone can do the complain notice about GPL violation.
> 
> Indeed. Well, anyone with copyrighted code within MobileVLCKit, which
> doesn't include quite a number of modules (mostly encoders, stream output,
> linux/win32 video outputs, qt4 intf, various control interfaces).
> 
> > And you can also send report to Apple
> 
> True, that would be the way to go.

If there is a chance that they do have useful code, then it might be smarter 
to ask for the source code first, c.f. TV output.

> > which will remove it since App(_)Store isn't GPL compliant distribution
> > method.

And second, can Apple sue the vendor

> This doesn't seem to be quite true anymore,

Did you analyze it and how is it different from before, in the US?

> especially considering the increasing numbers of open-source applications
> on the Mac App Store.

Even if the terms of the Mac App Store were the same, the open-source 
applications could be non-GPL or the vendor could own all copyrights and 
implicitly relicense to non-GPL.

> IMO, we should check the current situation first prior to using this
> argument for our own sake. Distributing VLC for Mac and VLC for iOS
> through Apple's App Store is probably something we will want to do
> sooner or later.

Err, count me out. Not only you need to ensure that the App Store terms are 
compatible with the GPL. But _then_ you also need to ensure that Apple will 
not sue you for breaking their application vendor contractual terms, which is 
yet another set of terms potentially not compatible with the GPL.

-- 
Rémi Denis-Courmont
http://www.remlab.net/
http://fi.linkedin.com/in/remidenis