New Delhi (The Hawk): The nine-month prohibition on downloading VLC, a well-known media player in the South Asian market, was lifted on Monday by the Ministry of Electronics and IT.
According to TechCrunch, a well-known software company named VideoLAN filed a legal notification last month asking the nation's IT and telecom ministries to provide an explanation for the block order.
VideoLAN received legal backing from the Delhi-based advocacy group Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF).
On Twitter, IFF stated: "Victory! @GoI MeitY has chosen to lift its ban on the VLC media player website. Throughout this procedure, @videolan received legal assistance from IFF. #WhatTheBlock."
"This prohibition was implemented without giving VideoLAN prior notice or the chance to be heard, which violated the Supreme Court's ruling in Shreya Singhal v. Union of India as well as the 2009 Blocking Rules. Given that approximately 80 million Indians use the open-source VLC Media Player software, this was strange "It was reported that IFF said.
One of VLC's largest export markets is India, where the bulk of users get the programme through the website.
The majority of significant ISPs (internet service providers) are blocking the site, using a variety of methods, according to VideoLAN president and principal developer Jean-Baptiste Kempf.
According to TechCrunch, the site instantly noticed a decline in traffic from the South Asian market of 80% as a result of the ban.
VLC is a media player that has been downloaded more than 3.5 billion times and doesn't need an internet connection or to be connected to any specific services in order to function.
(Inputs from Agencies)