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That article, and most of its reader comments, mildly sickens me. I love Apple, but that doesn't mean I have to approve of DRM. It's crazy to see everyone pilin

by person 16y ago

That article, and most of its reader comments, mildly sickens me. I love Apple, but that doesn't mean I have to approve of DRM. It's crazy to see everyone piling on Rémi when Apple made the decision to use DRM and thereby exclude a whole category of OSS projects. A license is a license, and if DRM is prohibited, there's not much wiggle room. I feel sorry for Rémi, as he'll probably now be subjected to dozens of misguided angry emails.

mechanical_fish 16y ago
Yeah, what a strategically brilliant move: fight DRM by removing one of the most popular and full-featured players of unencumbered content from the hands of users. Because nothing sells DRM-free content like making it more difficult to play. And it goes without saying that the sight of a single developer torpedoing a popular project over the objections of both other developers and users is an awesome commercial for open source.
- martythemaniak 16y ago
  Both the GPL and VLC were around long before Apple's store. The developer contributed to a project that had a very clear, existing copyrights and Apple chose not to honour that. Simple as that. And yes, seeing apple fanboys jump on this guy because he wants his rights honoured is pretty sickening.
  - foljs 16y ago
    You can have all the right in the world and still be an ahole.
    - sid0 16y ago
      One man's asshole is another man's hero. Who are you to judge him?
      - foljs 16y ago
        Obviously the "one man" in your opening sentence. Duh!
- person 16y ago
  If there is a problem with the license, pretending otherwise doesn't seem very sustainable to me. Shooting the messenger might make the mob feel better, but that doesn't make it justified.
- sid0 16y ago
  And it goes without saying that the sight of a single developer torpedoing a popular project over the objections of both other developers and users is an awesome commercial for open source. It doesn't seem like VLC requires copyright assignment. If it did then the maintainers could implicitly or explicitly relicense VLC for the app store. Since Remi holds the copyright to whatever source code he wrote, he has a right to see that the source code isn't used against his wishes. Maybe he has a philosophical objection to Apple or the app store. Maybe he's just doing it "for the lulz". Whatever it is, it's honestly none of anyone else's business. And that article is terribly one-sided. The only facts that matter are that Remi holds the copyright to some of VLC's source code and that the app store ToS is possibly incompatible with the GPL. Anything else (motives, etc) is a value judgement.
- tygorius 16y ago
  > a single developer torpedoing a popular project over the objections of both other developers and users So, your point is that developers should only enforce their rights when it will be popular? I was singularly unimpressed by the blog author's focus on blaming the developer for making things inconvenient for others. Well, insisting on your rights is quite often inconvenient for others. And it's not like it should be surprising. This sort of conflict was inevitable given the terms of the App Store and the GPL.
tzs 16y ago
This has nothing to do with DRM. Apple's DRM is compatible with GPLv2.

by person 16y ago

mechanical_fish 16y ago

Yeah, what a strategically brilliant move: fight DRM by removing one of the most popular and full-featured players of unencumbered content from the hands of users. Because nothing sells DRM-free content like making it more difficult to play. And it goes without saying that the sight of a single developer torpedoing a popular project over the objections of both other developers and users is an awesome commercial for open source.

martythemaniak 16y ago
Both the GPL and VLC were around long before Apple's store. The developer contributed to a project that had a very clear, existing copyrights and Apple chose not to honour that. Simple as that. And yes, seeing apple fanboys jump on this guy because he wants his rights honoured is pretty sickening.
- foljs 16y ago
  You can have all the right in the world and still be an ahole.
  - sid0 16y ago
    One man's asshole is another man's hero. Who are you to judge him?
    - foljs 16y ago
      Obviously the "one man" in your opening sentence. Duh!
person 16y ago
If there is a problem with the license, pretending otherwise doesn't seem very sustainable to me. Shooting the messenger might make the mob feel better, but that doesn't make it justified.
sid0 16y ago
And it goes without saying that the sight of a single developer torpedoing a popular project over the objections of both other developers and users is an awesome commercial for open source. It doesn't seem like VLC requires copyright assignment. If it did then the maintainers could implicitly or explicitly relicense VLC for the app store. Since Remi holds the copyright to whatever source code he wrote, he has a right to see that the source code isn't used against his wishes. Maybe he has a philosophical objection to Apple or the app store. Maybe he's just doing it "for the lulz". Whatever it is, it's honestly none of anyone else's business. And that article is terribly one-sided. The only facts that matter are that Remi holds the copyright to some of VLC's source code and that the app store ToS is possibly incompatible with the GPL. Anything else (motives, etc) is a value judgement.
tygorius 16y ago
> a single developer torpedoing a popular project over the objections of both other developers and users So, your point is that developers should only enforce their rights when it will be popular? I was singularly unimpressed by the blog author's focus on blaming the developer for making things inconvenient for others. Well, insisting on your rights is quite often inconvenient for others. And it's not like it should be surprising. This sort of conflict was inevitable given the terms of the App Store and the GPL.

tzs 16y ago

This has nothing to do with DRM. Apple's DRM is compatible with GPLv2.