[MPlayer-dev-eng] mplayer and the mac store

[Reimar Döffinger]

On 16 Mar 2011, at 20:44, compn <tempn at twmi.rr.com> wrote:
> someone asked my opinion on the mac store and how mplayer applications
> have gone up for sale on it.
> 
> thought i'd ask the rest of the project while i was thinking.
> 
> you might remember vlc has had some problem with the apple app store
> because of incompatabilities from apple's eula and the GPL.

I do not know if the terms are identical, and details matter here.

> there are mplayer apps with easy to find source code and instructions:
> http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mplayerx/id421131143?mt=12
> http://mplayerx.org/#Download

Oh the irony. It seems completely impossible to view the first link on an iPad.
Personally as long as it is obvious enough for the user that the source is available and under what license, and the user can actually run a modified and self-compiled version I personally don't "hold a grudge" against the developers (the running part makes the iOS case more complicated).
However since Apple itself clearly does commercial distribution I do think they themselves do have an obligation to host the source, and I consider it rather lame that they do not make more of an effort to provide a common mechanism to do so.
Due to the above I have a nagging feeling that even on the mac store and even when it is only LGPL code you might break the Apple developer agreement by uploading it, since you can't absolve Apple from its duty of providing source itself (at least for anything sold where Apple takes 30%, for free stuff the non-commercial clause _may_ apply).
However this is all just my opinion (as was ask), for the legal reality ask a lawyer (and even that isn't really a certain way).