∞ VLC media player pulled from App Store over licensing issues

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Apple pulled the popular VLC media player from its App Store because of a dispute over licensing issues.

[ad#Google Adsense 300x250 in story]VLC is released under the General Public License, which apparently conflicts with Apple’s App Store license that requires app digital rights management. Apple was informed of the issue by VLC’s Rémi Denis-Courmont.

“On January 7th, Apple removed VLC media player from its application store for iDevices,” wrote Denis-Courmont on the VLC Web site. “Thus the incompatibility between the GNU General Public License and the AppStore terms of use is resolved – the hard way. This end should not have come to a surprise to anyone, given the precedents.”

It seems clear, given the nature of the disagreement, VLC will not return to the App Store.


  • Anonymous

    he couldn’t keep his mouth shut…

  • http://twitter.com/IrishSoxWKP Wayne K Parsons Jr

    Good thing you can still find it in other venues, such as their website. Google search for VLC brings it up straight away.

    • JohnO

      Not so helpful for iPhone or iPad users, though, unless you jailbreak.

  • Jeffg360

    Rémi Denis-Courmont is a complete pompous jerk! He cares more about making a political statement than for the users. No wonder VLC can’t attract engineers to work on it. Long live Movist! See ya VLC!

  • bobmax48

    Not sure why anyone is crying over this app not being in the App Store anymore. It was a piece of crap that didn’t play video well at all. If you were looking for an app that plays something other then H264 this not the app to use. I uninstalled it from my iPad after it refused to play almost every video file I threw at it.