Etherplex

The lastest furor to hit the web regarding free software and Apple’s products is the removal of VLC from the App Store due to licensing issues.  Many reports tend to go after the man, Denis-Courmont, who used to be a lead developer for VLC, for pointing out the inherent incompatibility of Free software with Apple’s App Store.  I think this is inappropriate; the licenses for the software should be respected.  The same people who would publicly decry software piracy as being a violation of copyright are standing up and cheering for copyright infringement of VLC because they feel like they deserve to have the software.  So, I decided to take a few minutes and walk through some of the coverage and explain the issues as I see them, and paint a picture of how the situation might be improved.