Thread: Apple Users Forced to Pirate VLC Player? Whatever Next?

Apple Users Forced to Pirate VLC Player? Whatever Next?

Last year, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users were delighted to learn that VLC media player had become available for their device via the App Store. But now, thanks to a licensing and copyright dispute, that particular party has been cut short and the software pulled offline. Bizarrely, the only way people can get this free and open source software now is to pirate it. You couldn’t make it up.





VLC media player is resident on the PCs of millions of Internet users. It’s an almost perfect tool capable of playing videos and audio in just about any format found anywhere on the web, especially file-sharing networks. Free and open source, when something can’t be played, VLC almost always provides the answer.

Last September it was revealed, much to the delight of millions of iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users, that a version of VLC would now be available on Apple devices through the company’s App Store. Developed in the open source spirit and offered for free by mobile company Applidium, the app was given the blessing of VideoLAN. The reach of the mighty VLC had been extended and users far and wide rejoiced, but not for long.

One of the original developers of VLC, Rémi Denis-Courmont, angrily pointed out that incompatibilities exist between Apple’s DRM policies and the terms of the GNU General Public License under which VLC is offered. While the GNU license allows Apple to offer an iOS version of VLC, the layer of DRM it puts over the top of the application was a no-no.

Information found at: Apple Users Forced to Pirate VLC Player? Whatever Next? | TorrentFreak

News is a bit outdated but thanks for the info :) Dam apple -.-

At least it's still available in some form.

Openstreamer is a replacement for VLC Player and it works good.
You just need a Jailbreaked Phone 3GS or higher, Cydia solve the rest.

open streamer crashes from xvid.

it's not pirating if it's free software

The funny thing is that it is piracy regardless of price. Some free encryption software violates trade and export agreements in certain countries, for example, and acquiring it through illegal means might be "piracy" in some jurisdictions.

Anyways, VLC is great, but I prefer a properly configured MPC-HC (Media Player Classic Homecinema).