The VLC media player is once again available in India following a ban that prohibited downloads of the popular software.

VLC is one of the most popular and powerful media players, capable of handling almost any video or audio format. Inexplicably, India ordered all telecom’s to block downloads of the app and access to its website more than nine months ago, without giving any indication as to the reason.

According to TechCrunch, the country has now lifted the ban.

“This ban was put into place without any prior notice and without giving VideoLAN the opportunity of a hearing, which went against the 2009 Blocking Rules and the law laid down by the Supreme Court in Shreya Singhal v. Union of India. This was strange because VLC Media Player is an open-source software which is used by nearly 80 million Indians,” the New Delhi-based Internet Freedom Foundation said in a statement.

As TechCrunch points out, some have speculated that the ban may have been in response to a Symantec report that hackers with ties to Beijing were exploiting popular apps, including VLC, to gain access to users’ computers. By banning the official VLC, however, many users were driven to less secure alternatives, including versions of the open source program that were maliciously hacked.