VLC and GPL and LC on iOS (was: Re: MergEXT now included with Indy/Business IDE)

Kay C Lan lan.kc.macmail at gmail.com
Fri May 6 00:33:56 EDT 2016


On Thu, May 5, 2016 at 1:34 PM, Monte Goulding <monte at appisle.net> wrote:

>
> We worked hard with all major copyright holders to not repeat history and
> we are confident to have achieved this goal.
>
> My understanding of the situation is that many contributors to VLC were
opposed to the stance of a few zealots at FOSS and were of a similar
opinion to Linus Torvalds:

www.cnet.com/news/torvalds-lambasts
-free-software-foundation/?_escaped_fragment_=#!

These people appreciated that Apple's code neither added to or detracted
from VLC and was simply a distribution system - (not unlike a newsagency or
bookshop). Links to the developers website on the App Store ensured anyone
and everyone could have unlimited access to the source code of VLC. The
zealots took Apple to court, although some VLC contributors argued in
support of Apple. Apple lost, so took the easiest path and simply removed
all GPL software from the App Store - the only people hurt that day were GPL
contributors.

So in a classic paradox, to fulfil their desire to distribute VLC free and
open to the World, a band of contributors freed themselves of the
restrictions placed on them by the FOSS zealots, by rewriting VLC under a
less restrictive open software license, returned it to the Apple Store who
were more than willing to distribute their work as far and as wide as they
could.

Pick your license carefully - you should ALWAYS read the fine print.



More information about the use-livecode mailing list