VLC, Apple and the GPL

There is a storm in a teacup going on today, and I feel I should comment.

And yeah, for those of you who know me you know that “comment” really means “rant” with a hint of “opine”.

In summary, VLC (videolan.org) developers don’t like the Digital Rights Management (DRM) part of the iTunes experience, and accuse Apple of being in breach of copyright as their DRM contravenes the terms of the GNU Public Licence (GPL). There is more, naturally.

This is not a David and Goliath story though. I’m not saying VLC or the GPL are wrong, or that the Apple Megacorporation is right, I’m just saying that Apple is primarily a music-store, regardless of what any court told them in 1981, and they are going to ensure that everything is DRMed up the whazzoo to protect that business; a business that has made them richer than god by the way.

And by “a music store” I pretty much mean “the music store”.

If you want people to use your software on their iStuff, you adhere to The Law Of Apple. No Penguin-fscker, however idealist, is ever going to change The Law Of Apple, or even put a dent in The Way Things Are Done At Cupertino.

So whine about it, spit your rattle, throw your toys from the pram but do not blame Apple for it. You’re the whiney bitches who have decided that you don’t want to share your software on iTunes. Go give your software away to Android users, some of whom may even care about which licence you distribute it under, Apple won’t even notice. Apple are already richer than Croesus and probably don’t feel the need to even enter into a discussion on DRM and the GPL.

Apple will already have a way of dealing with breach of copyright on their store: pull it first, ask questions later. If you tell them they are in breach of the GPL, they are likely to just remove it from the store if you are lucky, or tell their Law Machine to ask you why you released your software on their store if you knew it was going to land them in legal trouble if you’re not.

Also, I’d just like to point out to the writers of the article linked above that Draco was a law-man who pretty much invented the constitution, thought that the lesser crimes warranted the death penalty, and that for the more serious crimes he couldn’t really think of anything more severe. So in this instance, the term “draconian” can only be applied to the devs of VLC as they are the ones who have decided that the ultimate penalty should be applied for the crime committed. The term you were looking for to describe Apple’s stance was “fascist”.