These companies that mislead our users

Some thoughts about the people who use the name of VLC media player to spread adware/spyware while infringing the VideoLAN‘s intellectual property and brand…

At VideoLAN we’re really fed up with all those websites/companies that are tricking our users to download malware and violate our IP by distributing misleading versions of VLC without conforming to the GPL license.

What bothers us the most is that many of them are bundling VLC with various crapware to monetize it in ways that mislead our users by thinking they’re downloading an original version. This is not acceptable. The result is a poor product that doesn’t work as intended, that can’t be uninstalled and that clearly abuses its users and their privacy. Not to mention that it also discredits our work as volunteers and that it’s time-consuming, time that is not invested in the development.

Of course this situation is not specific to VLC, other open source products are affected by this scourge and there’s not much we can do about it. They have the money to buy adwords, we don’t. Sadly, as a non-profit organization we don’t have the money to sue them.

We’re constantly trying to enforce our IP to protect our users, in the meantime tell people around you that VLC media player is and will always be free of any charge and for your own security always download it from the official website www.videolan.org.

EDIT 07/07/2011: these are the two biggest companies who use VLC to distribute their crap:

• pinballcorp.com
• eorezo.com / tuto4pc.com

But there are many more:

• http://vlc.us.com
• http://www.eorezo.com/cgi-bin/download/direct/index?c_software=vlc
• http://www.vlcdownload.org
• http://www.softwaredownload.cc/?gclid=CMyGhoHrwJ8CFcpb4wodNHnJzg
• http://www.iogiciel.com/l/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=53&Itemid=61
• http://vlcplayer.2010-fr.com
• http://www.mediaplayers-gratuits.com
• http://www.downloadvlcplayer.net
• http://vlc-media-player-blog.com
• http://www.softesdown.com/fr/vlcmediaplayer/
• http://www.getyoursoft.com/download/name/vlc-media-player/id_soft/18
• http://supertelech.info
• http://www.descargarvclmediaplayergratis.com
• http://www.oficial-es.org/es
• http://todotusoft.com/Video/Reproductor-Multimedia/1158/VLC-Media-Player.html
• http://galleries.secure-softwaremanager.com/804e9dc7b4/854190c2bc1e
• http://www.clickdownloadsoftware.com/player/
• http://www.freefilesoft.net/VLCPlayer/
• http://www.vlc.de
• http://videolan.sk

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