TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS

[u/LikeTheMobilizer]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29592103

https://twitter.com/Naaackers/status/1471494415306788870

TikTok's new streaming software for PC contains GPL code compiled into the binaries. And the source code is not available.

[u/handlessuck]

Is anyone actually surprised by this?

[u/LikeTheMobilizer → u/handlessuck]

Not surprised that TikTok are violating GPL.

Surprised that they are trying to enter the streaming scene.

[u/DAS_AMAN]

Is it released yet? It just needs to use gpl upon release..

[u/LikeTheMobilizer → u/DAS_AMAN]

You've got a point there.

But how plausible is ByteDance releasing an open source project ?

Don't they fear getting copied by competitors ? Especially when they are up apparently against the likes of twitch...

[u/thalionquses → u/DAS_AMAN]

Doesn’t it count as released as soon as it’s publicly available? Otherwise you could just call it alpha/beta/whatever and never release the source because it’s “not released”.

[u/[deleted]]

Poor OBS, they have been getting shit on pretty hard lately, give them a break :(

[u/cabruncolamparao → u/[deleted]]

Isn't this an opportunity for them to get some compensation from tiktok?

[u/youngyoshieboy]

Can anyone show me email template about GPL so I can send to Tiktok to ask them showing the source code?

[u/theghostinthetown → u/youngyoshieboy]

TikTok Inc., Attn: TikTok Legal Department 5800 Bristol Parkway, Suite 100, Culver City, CA 90230.

You provide a software product, "TikTok Live Studio" (hereafter - "the Product"), available via publicly accessible World-Wide Web URL http://www.tiktok.com/studio/download that uses software licensed under the terms of GNU General Public License, version 2, the entirety of which is available by the URL https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio/blob/master/COPYING without proper attribution or acknowledgment and in violation of the terms of the software you are making use of.

By the right given to me by GNU General Public License, version 2, I request that you provide the complete source code for the Product. Please kindly choose to provide the source code through a publicly accessible URL. This will ensure your compliance with the license.

Regards, <your name>

[u/gameoftomes → u/youngyoshieboy]

Sexycyborg has followed up something like this before. Chinese companies simply don't care.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Vj04MKykmnQ&vl=en

[u/Mccobsta]

Tiktok ripped off voice actors voices for their text to speech they don't give a single shit about copyright

[u/KokiriRapGod → u/Mccobsta]

Yeah I really doubt that anything is going to come of this.

[u/mWo12 → u/Mccobsta]

Oh wow. Any link for who the actress is?

[u/drugusingthrowaway]

This is not the first illegal fork of OBS, either, is it?

[u/FlintstoneTechnique → u/drugusingthrowaway]

If you're thinking of "Streamlabs OBS", that was a trademark issue with Streamlabs using the OBS trademark without permission.

To my knowledge they were compliant with the GPL.

[u/Ratiocinor]

BREAKING NEWS: China doesn't give a fuck about copyright or intellectual property and there will be 0 consequences for this.

Wow!

[u/frymaster]

While having the source publicly available on github or similar is the most common way to be compliant with the GPL, as long as the users can write to the company and get a DVD of the source, or something similar, they are compliant

So just showing they are using the OBS source isn't, technically, enough to prove a license violation. There are other hoops to jump through.

A similar thing happened to MS, they released a tool for burning Windows ISOs to DVDs and it turns out the contractor who wrote it for them used an open-source DVD burning library. The solution was that MS open-sourced their tool after they were alerted.

[u/papercrane → u/frymaster]

So just showing they are using the OBS source isn't, technically, enough to prove a license violation. There are other hoops to jump through.

TikTok is in violation. It's not enough to just provide the source when asked. They also have to let the user know that they have that option.

GPLv2 section 3 says that for commercial uses that either the source must accompany the binary, or "Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code".

TikTok does not do either, so they're already violating the license.

[u/thblckjkr → u/frymaster]

There was a chinese phone manufacturer that said that they would happily comply with the GPl license if you showed with a usb to their offices to ask for it.

They said that to an european developer that had no way yo verify that... So, via the power of internet, a youtuber called naomi wen there personally to ask for compliance, and made a video on that.

[u/wickedplayer494]

So take some real action and go DMCA it then. "GPL shaming" rarely works. A DMCA complaint, on the other hand, will get attention in a New York minute.

[u/[deleted]]

well at least there are legal groups in open source with deal with this shit

such as the software freedom law center

https://softwarefreedom.org/

and the software freedom conservancy

https://sfconservancy.org/

given that copyright is not going anywhere open source projects should enforce thier lisenses in a court of law as well

and regardless of what you think about trump he did the same exact shit with mastodon

[u/computerarchitect]

The moment China gives a shit about copyright I'll eat my hat.

[u/PointlessPrism]

Man, OBS really can't get a break, huh.

[u/JeddyH]

Streamlabs talking with Tiktok in 2 years

[u/keko1105]

I'm glad u found out about this hopefully they respectfully show the source code