Being the one that wrote this article and press release, maybe I can help people understanding the issue.

Basically, AOL send us a mail last summer asking us to ask for an API key for their new API, and the license was just fuckingly amazingly blocking for everything related to open source. More detail can be asked, if needed.

So anyway, 1.0.0 was just out, so it was quite impossible to comply, since people would be able to use the shoutcast plugin from 1.0.0 in all 1.0.x versions of VLC, since we keep modules API/ABI during a whole cycle. Therefore useless...

So, we waited for the 1.1.0 release to remove the module. And make a fuss about it. Of course, we could have talked to them before, but of course, nothing would have happened then, since big corporation only care about bad press... And moreover, the license was so fking blocking that we didn't even see where the point was.

Finally, we have a complete extensions framework which means that now people can write their own scripts in lua to do exactly the same, without asking us :D

I hope this explains a bit more, don't hesitate to contact me if you want a bit more than a "funny" press release...

Why are they working with Shoutcast? Does having Shoutcast compatibility add that much value to their free product?

I say dump Shoutcast and start promoting the hell out of a competing format.

Along with the BBC changing the iplayer to use DRM, effectively locking out open source players, I hope this isn't becoming a trend.