If you haven't yet downloaded the VLC Media Player for iPhone/iPad, now's a good time to do so. A formal copyright complaint has been issued against the software by one of the individual contributors to the VLC project. As a result, it seems likely that Apple could pull the app from the App Store:
Today, a formal notification of copyright infringement was sent to Apple Inc. regarding distribution of the VLC media player for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. VLC media player is free software licensed solely under the terms of the open source GNU General Public License (a.k.a. GPL). Those terms are contradicted by the products usage rules of the AppStore through which Apple delivers applications to users of its mobile devices.
The reason for the complaint is an apparent incompatibility between the GPL license and the App Store policies. The FSF describesthe issue and cites the GPL license itself:
Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.
This prevention of additional any restrictions in the GPL license seems to make the App Store an incompatible form of distribution for any strictly GPLv2 licensed software. In this case, however, there seems to be some dissent amongst the players. The officialVideoLan site has endorsed the port of VLC to the iPhone and iPad and their official twitter has since posted saying "So far, VLC is not going out of the AppStore" and "Maybe the FSF should actually ask us our opinion instead of writing misleading articles about VLC". At present VLC Media Player for iPhone/iPad remains available on the App Store.
via MacRumors
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