Apple Still Hates the GPL

Source of original photo

Summary: Disdain and fear of Free software is shown as Apple stifles its #1 competition (which is already uses software patents against) by banning it from the "App Store"

APPLE IS not compatible with the GNU GPL and this has already led to problems with VLC. Well, Apple does it again as it "pulls VLC from App Store over open-source DRM dispute":

VLC was a surprise addition to the App Store back in September, but one which iPad and iPhone users quickly came to appreciate. Now the multi-format media player has been yanked from the store, the result of incompatibilities with Apple’s App Store DRM policies and the terms of the GNU General Public License on which VLC is based.

As one developer (not of VLC) views it, "[t]he problem with the Apple store today is that when you downloaded an application from it, you do not have freedom 3. I assume that R. Denis-Courmont (a VLC contributor and less importantly a Nokia employee) tries to change the Apple store to a more transparent system by telling them they infringed on the GPL with their VLC app and they should allow copying applications from one phone to another when they are licensed under the GPL. Instead of Apple adding 2 lines of code to their system which would allow people who downloaded GPL apps to copy those from one isomething to another isomething, they seem to have removed the VLC app from their store which resulted in irrelevant reactions, annoyed users and frustrated contributors."

Apple is bad for everyone's freedom. It doesn't even hide it. ⬆