Posted in Rants, Technology

VLC app finally killed off

Remember me talking about the VLC app and all it’s wonderful glory? Remember how I said we need to contact that guy to shut his trap? Well apparently that didn’t work, and Apple finally pulled the plug:

Image Credit: ObamaPacman.com

It seems after months of complaining, instead of working it out, Apple had to pull the app… Thanks a lot Rémi Denis-Courmont. If I ever see you, I am going to punch you in the face. Read what this guy posted on the site, he is such a prick:

“At last, Apple has removed VLC media player from its application store. Thus the incompatibility between the GNU General Public License and the AppStore terms of use is resolved – the hard way. I am not going to pity the owners of iDevices, and not even the MobileVLC developers who doubtless wasted a lot of their time. This end should not have come to a surprise to anyone.”

I am literally going to kick this guy square in the jewels if I ever find out who he is and where he lives. I cannot believe that he is on this high and mighty horse. I am glad that I heeded the warnings and still able to use this app, and I guess it will soon make it to Cydia, but in the mean time, I am getting a plane ticket and making a visit to this guy.

thanks a lot. douchebag.

UPDATE: read what this guy is saying over at Planet VideoLan, here’s an excerpt:

Why Apple Removed VLC from the App Store?

“I do not know for certain why Apple removed VLC, and Apple will probably never state the truth.”

“All in all, we will probably never know the truth”

BS.

via [ObamaPacman]

Vicious Nokia Employee Gets VLC Removed from Apple App Store

Saturday, January 8, 2011

By OP Editor

Nokia employee and VLC developer Rémi Denis-Courmont goes against mission of VideoLan, gets Apple to remove VLC for iOS from App Store using licensing technicality.

VLC iPad video player RIP

VLC Developer vs. App Store

Few months ago, VLC, the free video player from VideoLAN was released to the App Store. VLC for iPad, and later versions for iPhone and iPod touch, was ported to iOS by Applidium for free, and released for FREE. However, contributing developer and Nokia employee Rémi Denis-Courmont didn’t like it.

Remi argued that open-source GNU General Public License that is tied to VLC conflicts with the terms detailed in Apple’s own App Store licensing, and tried to remove the iOS VLC app based on copyright and licensing claims.

The issue is that Apple iOS Apps contain a standard DRM for security signing purposes. Remi ignores the fact that despite the DRM (there for security purposes), anyone with compatible iOS devices can use the VLC App. Apple also distributes the VLC app for free. Thus, Apple isn’t restricting distribution with the DRM. Not at all.

VideoLAN Mission

Note the VideoLAN mission: “VideoLAN is a project and a non-profit organization, composed of volunteers, developing and promoting free multimedia solutions.”

VideoLAN VLC mission

Apple Removes VLC From App Store on January 7, 2011

The Nokia employee did not attempt to achieve an amicable solution, instead he went straight to getting VLC removed from the Apple App Store. 2 months later, on January 7, Apple finally removed VLC for iOS.

“At last, Apple has removed VLC media player from its application store. Thus the incompatibility between the GNU General Public License and the AppStore terms of use is resolved – the hard way. I am not going to pity the owners of iDevices, and not even the MobileVLC developers who doubtless wasted a lot of their time. This end should not have come to a surprise to anyone.”

Posted in Rants, Technology

VLC is on the iPhone, but soon could be leaving

Let me give you a quick rundown of VLC is, for those of you that have no idea what it is. VLC stands for VideoLan Client. Basically the idea behind VLC is that it can play almost everything you throw at it, video and audio. If you have some sort of video that won’t play anywhere else, download VLC (direct link to 1.1.4 32bit version) and try playing it on that thing. It’s been called the Swiss Army Knife of video players by Patrick Norton. It is an open source and free program to download and I highly recommend it!

Well VLC has always been a popular client on the desktop of most PCs, Macs and Linux boxes for years. I will say that if you have any sort of video files that may contain **cough** **cough** movies or **cough** **cough** tv shows, this is the player you want to play them. Even the new rage of .mkv files has been able to implemented into the compatible codecs that are playable on this thing. Well, VLC wanted to move onto the iOS platform so that could expand its horizons, only problem is that VLC by itself (the company that wrote the program) couldn’t because it is a non-profit organization and therefore could not get a developer status for the Apple world. So VLC went to Applidium and asked them to distribute the app under it’s name, and they said YES! So Applidium took the code and ported it over for the iPhone.

So now we have an app that can play unknown file formats to the stock iPhone, and we can have some of those movies that we have purchased and made digital copies of, and put them on our phones along side the iPhone formatted .m4v, .mp4 or .mov files. OR, for some of us who don’t have a DVR and miss shows because we don’t subscribe to cable, and the show isn’t available on the network website, Hulu or iTunes (Big Bang Theory, I’m looking at you); we may go elsewhere to find the show that we love. So the iPhone is now a better smartphone because it can play all sorts of formats, like its competition! So iPhone users everywhere (well newer devices) rejoice!

But wait, it seems we have a dissenter among the ranks! It seems that the developer of the VLC app, Rémi Denis-Courmont, had sent papers to Apple citing copyright infringement. Basically saying that the app VLC is released under the GPLv2, and it should be free of any “locks” that Apple store distributes with it’s apps. So the company that wrote the app, asked for HELP to GET ON THE IPHONE, that company helps and it gets there, then you go an KICK THEM IN THE MOUTH!!!!!! Are you freaking kidding me????? If you go onto read the papers, Rémi goes on to blame Applidium for their involvement as well, as they knew that DRM exists, but were going to release the app as FREE in the App Store. So it is still FREE!!! So the only problem is that the app is still “locked” into your iTunes account, but its FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!

This developer is completely retarded. I understand his stance, but he is biting at nibbles here and making a mountain out of a mole hill!!! They have made the iPhone a better platform for it, but because he wants to be nit picky on the details, we may soon see the app get pulled all together because Apple doesn’t want to have to deal with all of the debacle that this guy is creating. Apple is basically just an innocent bystander, and has all rights to pull the app, all thanks to this idiot.

The only thing I can find on this guy, is the email address [vlc-devel@videolan.org], someone please comment below if you can find something else and tell this guy to back off!!!!

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

via [ArsTechnica] [Boy Genius Report] [Engadget]