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TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS

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Re: TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS

#201
post #74

Yup. The best thing we can all do is shine a light on it. I'm a lawyer and one thing that's important to remember in all of this is the interconnectedness of things, and being strategic about how to proceed is important. Shine the light everywhere. As in, one thing to consider is that some proponents of Free Software do not actually want certain types of high-profile public cases on the GPL even when they law appears…

> mostly because it could be really bad if a judge gets it wrong and sets something stupid as precedent.

At this point, isn't precedent already set? There have been more than a few GPL lawsuits where the courts ruled in favor of the GPL. This wiki has a list (https://wiki.fsfe.org/Migrated/GPL%20Enforcement%20Cases) of them.

Some of those are in the US, others in the EU. Not sure if US judges have to consider precedents set in EU countries?

Re: TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS

#203

It's concerning how many self-labelled software engineers on Twitter are chipping in with comments like "it's open source so it's fair game" or "they just need to add attribution".

So, I’m unclear on this if, and I don’t know if this is true, TikTok just creates a UI that “execs” commands to an unmodified OBS executable cli - What is their actual responsibility here?

Re: TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS

#204
post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hacker News has a "post the original source" rule. In this case, Twitter is the original source. One of my most recent grievances is with HN is the ranking penalty of Twitter submissions as that has been the primary source of news lately, for better or for worse.

Twitter is not the original source. The first image in the tweet is of an earlier post.

The image you’re talking about in the tweet is of a Discord message — this tweet is presumably the most original source that’s linkable as a normal page on the web.

Re: TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS

#205
I think it's useful for developers to have a rough mental model of how open source licensing works, as it's not that complicated yet affects what you can legally do, both as a user of open source software as well as as a contributor.

Coincidentally I recently did a Twitter thread on it, in case anyone's interested. I know not everyone like the medium, but at least it's also posted on Mastodon, so there's that: https://fosstodon.org/@VincentTunru/107382356640669971

Re: TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might not be like this everywhere, but in the US all software engineers are self-labelled. It's not like medical doctor (MD) or professional engineer (PE) where the title actually implies some license to practice.

It has been many years since After The Gold Rush was published and we are no closer today than we were then. At some point software engineering will be a real profession but I doubt anyone will take action before some huge catastrophe pushes the issue.

> At some point software engineering will be a real profession

I'm rooting for the same, finally we will earn like management /s

Re: TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to uncritically believe everything US establishment media says about enemies of the US establishment, that is your problem.

Where did I say that? Keep in mind that I'm not saying the US government has no influence, but it isn't anywhere close to what the situation in China is.

I think he's changing the subject to what he wants to discuss, what he thought this conversation was about the whole time.

Happens a lot in online discussions.

Re: TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are subtleties not captured by this quick overview which are not fully understood by (in my experience) the vast majority of programmers: https://choosealicense.com/licenses/ If your project is going to be "real" (e.g., not some personal throwaway), you really need a lawyer if you are including anything other than MIT. Even Apache can be problematic when it comes to patenting.

What about BSD?

[deleted]

Re: TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS

#209
post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The obvious difference is that it's impossible to explain any complex or in depth information using 280 characters or less. Trying to follow a thread of tweets (without using a 3rd party site) is painful. Heck, this throwaway response barely fits.

Many times there are a series of tweets. It's as easy to view it is as easy as scrolling down no third party tools required

If only it were that easy. Twitter displays a complex mix of follow up tweets and replies from other people, so the follow up can be burried and hard to find. It also may require clicking to load more tweets and there is little indication when there is important information in the replies. There is no way to know if scrolling through the replies will be a worthwhile use of time, or just have useless twitter noise.

This very comment thread is evidence of this. Look at all the people who didn't know that there were infringing binaries, because that is only mentioned in a reply by an obs dev in another tweet.

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