From TorrentFreak:
VideoLAN, the team behind the VLC media player, recently revealed that they turned down several tens of millions of euros to bundle their software with advertising. The same cannot be said of third-party developers cloning VLC for profit, however. An ad-supported clone discovered on Google Play has a staggering five to ten million downloads and breaches VLC's GPL license, yet Google refuses to take it down.
[...] Aside from its incredible functionality, VLC (operated by the VideoLAN non-profit) has won the hearts of Internet users for other key reasons, not least its commitment to being free and open source software. While it's true to say that VLC doesn't cost a penny, the term 'free' actually relates to the General Public License (GPL) under which it's distributed.
[...] Since VLC is extremely popular and just about as 'free' as software can get, people get extremely defensive when they perceive that a third-party is benefiting from the software without adhering to the terms of the generous GPL license. That was the case beginning a few hours ago when veteran Reddit user MartinVanBallin pointed out a piece of software on the Google Play Store.
"They took VLC, put in ads, didn't attribute VLC or follow the open source license, and they're using Media Player Classics icon," MartinVanBallin wrote.
Update: The app is no longer on Google Play.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Laci on Thursday February 08 2018, @01:44AM (4 children)
I mean it seriously. After they refuse to act in a timely manner, they are liable for willful contributory copyright infringement. If the clone is downloaded in the US, Google may be on the hook for $150000/download.
Google used to be the least evil of all the evil big corporations, but those days are slowly (or fast, depending on your feelings) going the way of the dodo :-(.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday February 08 2018, @02:00AM (3 children)
Can a non-profit foundation afford to sue Google (and lose)?
Luckily, it appears the stuff has been removed.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday February 08 2018, @03:30PM
Maybe not. But the losing lawsuit itself would draw massive attention. It would go viral. It would make Google look very bad in multiple ways. Further victimizing the victim while aiding the criminals to everyone's detriment. Gee, thanks Google.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 08 2018, @05:35PM (1 child)
Doesn't the EFF have lawyers for that?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday February 08 2018, @05:55PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Frontier_Foundation#Financial [wikipedia.org]
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/14/assange_bollocks_google_eff/ [theregister.co.uk]
https://thetrichordist.com/2017/08/19/did-eff-properly-disclose-relationship-to-google-in-supreme-court-case/ [thetrichordist.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]