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Comment by st3fan | Hacker News Reader

It is well known that GPL licensed software on the App Store is currently a grey area.

The developers of VLC for the iPhone, Applidium, took a risk with this app.

Interestingly that risk initially was Apple not approving the application.

But now that risk has actually become their fellow VLC developers turning against them and filing copyright infringements with Apple to get the app removed from the store.

Nobody wins. Sad.

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The grey area is only that GPLv2 lacked defenses against Tivoization. It's not as if authors who use the GPL are actually happy with end users being unable to circulate modified builds. This a win for anyone who doesn't want to subsidize Apple's dystopian future.

How is this a win for anyone? Apple isn't desperate to have GPL'd software on iOS; they probably like it, but they don't need it. This won't make Apple change their policy on sideloading apps. Furthermore, anyone who doesn't want to subsidize Apple's dystopian future will choose to buy a competitor's product whether VLC is on iOS or not. The only party's substantially affected here are iOS users, who are now deprived of a program to play more video types. Though some of them may feel strongly enough about this to switch to an alternative platform, most won't, because I think that most of Apple's users value a seamless user experience over their personal freedom to tinker with their device. Because of this preference, they will now be deprived of certain software. How has anyone won?

> anyone who doesn't want to subsidize Apple's dystopian future will choose to buy a competitor's product whether VLC is on iOS or not. The only party's substantially affected here are iOS users, who are now deprived of a program to play more video types.

If you don't like Apple's dystopian future, then reducing the incentives to own an iOS device sounds more effective than merely not subsidizing the platform.

I see your point. As I hinted at, I think a lack of GPL software in the App Store will have a negligible effect on actual iOS usage. Because of this, it makes people's iOS experience worse without making the overall situation better.

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