VLC-Developer VideoLan Says India Blocking Site Endangers Its Own Citizens (techcrunch.com) 23
VideoLan, the developer of popular media player VLC, says Indian telecom operators have been blocking its website since February of this year in a move that is potentially impacting some users in one of the open source firm's largest markets. From a report: "Most major ISPs [internet service providers] are banning the site, with diverse techniques," VideoLan president and lead developer Jean-Baptiste Kempf said of the blocking in India, in an email to TechCrunch. India represents 10% of all VLC users worldwide, he said. The website's traffic has seen an overall drop of 20% as a result of the blocking in India. [...] VLC, downloaded over 3.5 billion times worldwide, is a local media player that doesn't require internet access or connection to any particular service online for the vast majority of its features. But by blocking the website, India is pushing its citizens to "shady websites that are running hacked version of VLC. So they are endangering their own citizens with this ban," Kempf added.
Missing from the article.. (Score:2)
It's just a video player...nothing subversive I can think of with it..?
Seems an important part of the article posted is missing.
Re: (Score:2)
Because VLC automatically follows embedded links in some circumstances and that is being widely exploited in India to deliver malware.
Re:Missing from the article.. (Score:5, Informative)
Ok, so..why would India or any other country block access to VLC?
It's just a video player...nothing subversive I can think of with it..?
Seems an important part of the article posted is missing.
it's in TFA but not the summary:
Indian telecom operators have not explained why they have blocked the VideoLan website, but some speculate that it could be because of a misinterpretation of a security warning from earlier this year.
Security firm Symantec reported in April this year that the hacker group Cicada, which has ties with the Chinese government, was exploiting VLC Media Player as well as several other popular applications to gain remote access to the victim’s computers.
Kempf said he or his firm has not been contacted by any Indian government agency and the block is likely a result of a misunderstanding of the Chinese security issue.
This was also posted previous on slashdot (concerning blocking in India) https://news.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org]
(the Chinese malware) https://it.slashdot.org/story/... [slashdot.org]
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Which was entirely not the point they were making. At all. In any way.
Well done!
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Because VLC in and of itself isn't dangerous, even by India's own logic. It's other people who infect a VLC installer with malware.
Blocking VLC site *only* protects user from one of the few *safe* packages of VLC. Again, India isn't saying VLC itself is a problem, it's correlated malware from dodgy download sites that leverage VLC popularity.
So in a oddly misinformed and miscommunicated act, a knee-jerk reaction to 'sometimes, malicious actors make infested copies of VLC for redistribution' became 'make s
Re:No, it doesn't (Score:4, Insightful)
Basically, it all comes across as India not really knowing why it's blocking the site, or how to do it correctly.
Re:No, it doesn't (Score:5, Interesting)
The point is that VLC is popular, and because it is popular, there have popped up malware infested VLC installers from many sites apart from the legitimate source.
So the process of *only* blocking the legitimate source means the only recourse is going to be that much more likely to be malware...
Re: (Score:2)
There are plenty of other media players out there and most OS's come with a pretty good one.
Is that true? MacOS has historically come with a terrible one, and Windows generally comes with a bloated one. Both are missing what are really basic streaming features included in VLC. Linux generally comes with a pretty crap one installed by default, too, for that matter.
One of the first things most long-time Windows users do is install either MPC or VLC.
Re: (Score:1)
One of the first things most long-time Windows users do is install either MPC or VLC.
That's among the first things I do on any non-server install I have. Only computers without VLC on them in my possession right now are my Chromebook and my media server, and the Chromebook doesn't have it because I use it almost exclusively to take notes/read a book in meetings.
Re: (Score:2)
Agreed, VLC is both simple and is generally most up to date with appropriate codec support.
OS built in players historically miss support for some popular codecs or make the media playback an 'experience' rather than just playing the damn files.
Further, OS have figured out value of bundled media player is generally low, so they don't invest much thought and effort in them anymore.
Re: (Score:2)
In Windows 11 there's a new Media Player which is pretty much free of bloat and does 99% of what most VLC users use VLC for.
Most people only needed VLC to play MKV files or movies with subtitles. The only feature I ever use VLC for these days is the ability to specify an audio/video offset when using crappy bluetooth headphones that have a lot of lag. But even then, most headphones these days are getting really good for latency.
The features like creating streams to other applications are really esoteric
Re: (Score:3)
Not in and of itself, but once other factors are considered, yes.
Many bad guys publish their own hacked version of VLC that they mis-represent as legitimate copies from VideoLAN. The best way to avoid that is to download it directly from VideoLAN and skip the hacked copies out there.
So now tell people that the legit site is blocked for nebulous reasons and people will assume the government doesn't want them to have it (probably because of a bribe from Darth Mouse), so now they REALLY want it, and here's thi
Re: (Score:2)
India and Reality (Score:1)
OK, here is the reality.... The India Government is making it hard to do many types of business there. Their cyber laws, data laws etc are pushing for profit corporations out and even many major international nonprofits have pulled out if India. These are not always laws that are not necessarily there to protect the privacy of it's citizens.