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Originally Posted by JoeD
In the VLC case the copyright holder informed Apple of the violation and apple took the app down. Also, VLC was a different issue with the GPL, it was clearly using GPL'd code as the app was built from the GPL'd source but that wasn't the reason for the take-down request as the source was available, it was the adding of "extra restrictions" to the license, i.e Apple preventing installation on more than 5 devices (afaik).
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It is not at all clear whether this is actually a GPLv2 violation though. You can distribute the binary as much as you want, just take the ipk file from your iTunes folder and pass it around. People won't be able to actually use it, but that isn't guaranteed by GPLv2. GPLv2 says nothing about being able to install or actually use the program, just the right to distribute it. (See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tivoization).
This loophole was addressed by GPLv3, and I think it is pretty clear that GPLv3 applications could not be distributed through iTunes, but it is not obvious that the same applies to GPLv2.
(GPLv2 explictly says "Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not covered by this License; they are outside its scope." GPLv3 says "This License explicitly affirms your unlimited permission to run the unmodified Program.")
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Please don't think I'm trying to pick a fight over this. In fact I'm not sure where I sit on the topic, other than I dislike the way the media have initially reported this.
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Pretty much how I feel about this too.