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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

#361
post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless a major contributor of OBS sues, nothing will come of it. That's unfortunately very rare, the only one doing that with any frequency seems to be Harald Welte (one of the iptables developers) [1] 1: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Migrated/GPL%20Enforcement%20Cases#Wel...

Couldn't the FSF sue on their behalf?

On what grounds? The FSF has no standing to sue like that. The software freedom conservancy has lawyers who will work on copyleft infringement cases like this but a copyright holder still has to step forward as a plaintiff.

Re: TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS

#362

So people that have ripped off OBS so far and violated GPL include TikTok, StreamLabs (Logitech), and StreamElements. Any other people I missed?

I didn't realize streamlabs was logitech. Damn. Going to have to find a new go to wireless keyboard recommendation for media pcs instead of the k400. Should also stop singing the praises of the Pro Superlight...

You just recommended both of them... Off to a bad start...

Re: TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS

#363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bottom line: virtually all large (tech) companies are influenced by governments. They will surveil you on behalf of your government. Period. Any attempts to muddy the waters for ideological point-scoring are beside the point. If you want to dig deeper, please bring evidence instead of speculation.

In the original comment you responded to, the CCP put a party member in the ByteDance board of directors. The CCP is also known to enforce censoring government critical speech on their platforms including TikTok. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/25/revealed-... National Intelligence Law also allows the CCP to request from businesses any data unlimited in scope without a warrant or possible recourse. ht…

> The CCP is also known to enforce censoring government critical speech on their platforms including TikTok.

Donald Trump? Jan 6? Julian Assange? Chelsea Manning? There are countless examples of USG censorship. Just because you don't ideologically agree with the victims does not absolve the act of censorship.

> National Intelligence Law also allows the CCP to request from businesses any data unlimited in scope without a warrant or possible recourse.

Do you really believe that Washington doesn't have this same power? That they will just go "oh well, guess we can't investigate this national security crisis because Google said so". That's clearly ridiculous. Washington has the power and resources to break into datacenters if compelled.

> It’s not ideological; one clearly exerts more control than the other, by an order of magnitude.

It is clearly ideological (a priori, CCP = bad) and you have not demonstrated that one is vastly more controlling than the other.

Re: TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS

#364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the parent comments in the chain that you wrote said "Do you honestly think Washington doesn't exercise similar influence over Google?" Note the "similar". You then amended your point to "virtually all large (tech) companies are influenced by governments", which is completely different than similar levels of influence . Nobody cares that governments have some level of influence over companies - that's a featur…

If only you (and others) would be as pedantic about verifying claims made by the Washington establishment/media about "the evil See See Pee" as you are about winning internet arguments. It is impossible to have a practical discussion on these issues when one side unironically believes China is a Mordor-esque land ruled by comic book villains. Totally misinformed. Anyways, the level of influence is similar. If the Was…

You completely ignored the points that I made, and instead chose to pontificate about things completely irrelevant as a distraction from the fact that you did, indeed, move your goalposts, and couldn't come up with any counter-arguments to the fact that:

The Chinese government does, in fact, use Chinese companies to steal IP from other countries, while the US does not and cannot.

Irrelevant chaff that you have attempted to throw up: "would be as pedantic about verifying claims" "winning internet arguments" "one side unironically believes China is a Mordor-esque land ruled by comic book villains" (yeah no) "If the Washington wants my private data from Google, they will get it" (also no)

> If the Washington wants my private data from Google, they will get it

> the level of influence is similar

As someone who works with the US government, I can verify that both of these statements are factually false. (and, again, still a diversion from the actual topic under discussion which is governments compelling companies to engage in IP theft)

It is non-trivial (in the legal sense) for the US government to get the data of a single US person, and it certainly cannot do it en-masse, nor force companies to hand over all of their data unencrypted, both of which are things that the CCP can (and does) do. Therefore, the levels of influence are not similar. End of argument.

Re: TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS

#365
The actual Studio app is in beta and is only available to a select group of testers. If you're on the list, you can grab the installer from https://tiktok.com/Studio/Download.

If you're not on the list, like me, you can go to a cached version of that page, find the JS code that retrieves the download links (https://lf16-tiktok-web.ttwstatic.com/obj/tiktok-web-us/tikt...), hit the API that serves up the download links (https://tron-sg.bytelemon.com/api/sdk/check_update?branch=ma...) and grab the download links to share with everyone (the files are identical, these are mirrors):

https://lf16-live-studio.tiktokcdn.com/obj/tiktok-live-studi...

https://lf1-ttcdn-tos.pstatp.com/obj/tiktok-live-studio/6974...

Re: TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS

#366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if the GPLv3 violation pulls in TikTok's other software and infrastructure under it. That'd be one for the ages (like OpenWrt was [0]) if FSF manages to reign it in! [0] https://thenewstack.io/the-open-source-lesson-of-the-linksys...

No it doesn't that's not how GPL (or any license) works. What happens is that it's a breach of contract (licenses are contracts) which lead to an termination that contract (1) (license) which grants the usage rights (copyright) for the software. Which leads a company to (roughly) following choices: - start complying with the license in time "before" the license gets invalidated - buy a proprietary license from the li…

In option 1, when does the license get invalidated? Is it invalidated in the first place because the offending software broke the license? Or is it invalidated after notification from OBS? Or even later, after some amount of time after notification and non-correction?

If it's violated before notification, then option 1 is not possible, and option 2 is at the discretion of OBS, so option 3 is the only real legal outcome.

But if it's violated after notification, it seems like the optimal strategy for any company using GPL software is to not comply, until they are notified of violation, which apparently is not that common unless you're already a major product.

Re: TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS

#368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only you (and others) would be as pedantic about verifying claims made by the Washington establishment/media about "the evil See See Pee" as you are about winning internet arguments. It is impossible to have a practical discussion on these issues when one side unironically believes China is a Mordor-esque land ruled by comic book villains. Totally misinformed. Anyways, the level of influence is similar. If the Was…

You completely ignored the points that I made, and instead chose to pontificate about things completely irrelevant as a distraction from the fact that you did, indeed, move your goalposts, and couldn't come up with any counter-arguments to the fact that: The Chinese government does, in fact, use Chinese companies to steal IP from other countries, while the US does not and cannot. Irrelevant chaff that you have attemp…

Are we at that point?

Blah blah blah, brainwashed government contractor doing PR for his paymaster...

Re: TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS

#370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s not the only repercussion. They can sue for copyright infringement and there can be large fines.

Not a lawyer but seems like source projects would have a hard time showing damages since they don’t charge for the software.

As others have said, penalties are not related to how much you charge for the product itself. For example, when you start illegally distributing music your penalty won't be retail cost * number of copies. There's multipliers & things that get applied. Basically your judge/jury will figure out the damages amount after you're found guilty (assuming you don't settle).

This also makes sense when you factor in that retaining lawyer services to prosecute the infringement costs time and money (not to mention the court's time & resources to handle the case).

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