Re licensing may very well not be possible. Like most other FOSS software, VLC includes work of many people. They would have to get each and every contributing author to agree with the re-licensing. The conclusion is very likely: it cannot be done. What Apple would need to do is make a distinction between free and commercial apps.

High courts do not make the law, they just interpret it and establish boundaries. The German government can change the law if they don't like this outcome.

Most companies just sign a contract and pay because they know they have to. You never hear about that, only dubious patents and patent violations are reported. For many companies patent fees are a good source of income (also because they put real research in it). That doesn't mean the patent system works well now.

Exchange is not magically more reliable than other systems. The way it's managed makes a great difference. My company introduced it early last year. The first half year was a nightmare. We still have at least one "outage" a month. I don't blame Exchange, but a server park that's overloaded and bad management. For me, my private Gmail is much more reliable then my company's Exchange.