China doesn't give a flying f*ck about your software license LOL
LOL neither did Cisco, until they got sued by the FSF
TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS
451–460 of 543 posts
Re: TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS
#452Earlier quoted context omitted.
Using a tool to violate copyright isn't a valid legal defense.
There is a "data minig" exception from copyright law, saying that you can use any available code to feed your AI and don't have respect the license. And the output of your AI is yours. So TikTok could claim they either use Copilot, which was fed OBS source, or that they created their own private AI similar to Copilot. Microsoft showed the way. It hasn't been tested at court AFAIK, but if a company can use this defens…
Is there?
Can you point it out to me? I’ve looked, but haven’t been able to find it. I imagine it’d be somewhere on this page, in section 107 or later [0], but I haven’t actually found a clause which looks like it either has the intent or side-effect of making “data minig” exempt from having to obey copyright requirements.
Re: TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS
#453People expecting OBS to get millions from this are naïve. Almost certainly TikTok will change the software to just use OBS independently to avoid the issue. If OBS wants money they should use a dual license.
The reasons people want high damages are to discourage future GPL violations as retribution for the high damages proprietary software companies often demand where their copyrights are violated.
Re: TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS
#454How can you be so inept that you're literally stealing software, but are too incompetent to properly obfuscate it?
I find it amusing that there are (at the moment) 8 comments that label this "stealing", as does the submitted Tweet, with no one objecting to that terminology. Whenever such usage comes up when movie or music piracy is discussed any such usage is quickly objected to. Anyone want to have a go at trying to distinguish the two?
> Whenever such usage comes up when movie or music piracy is discussed any such usage is quickly objected to.
How can you state "quickly objected to" when the commonly accepted term-- including here on HN-- is "music piracy?"
Re: TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS
#455Not strictly enforcing license terms only deteriorates the standing of the license. A tweet or blog post is fine, but unless someone is willing to take TikTok to court over this the takeaway is clear - violate GPL if you want and nothing will come out of it.
The principles the FSF and Software Freedom Conservancy use when doing copyleft compliance actions encourage making legal action a last resort for when they refuse to comply. Legal action is a costly and time consuming process, so it makes sense to avoid it where possible. https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/principles.htm... Legal action is a last resort. Compliance actions are primarily education and assi…
I think a "last resort" is warranted to stop such blatant copyright infringement as this or the Onyx violation of the Linux GPL.
Re: TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS
#456Is it clear whether it's a "fork" (i.e. the entirety or a significant portion of the code is used in the derivative work), or whether they just found some utility snippet in an open source project and forgot to wash it? Also isn't TikTok Chinese?
Chinese companies operating in the U.S. are subject to U.S. copyright law.
Re: TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS
#457Re: TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS
#458Could GPL include a clause such that, when abused like this, the code of the offending app would become GPL code as well? Imagine people start "stealing" TikTok code, TikToc sues, and now the defendant has their day in court to defend the GPL, at TikToks expense.
Remember that what you're legally entitled to is statutory damages ($50k per act of infringement or $150k for wilful infringement) plus whatever actual damages you can prove (probably 0 for a hobbyist). You can negotiate whatever alternative settlement you like, which might mean e.g. regular audits of their code at their expense (the BSA does this kind of thing for a lot of commercial software). But they always have…
I'm thinking of infringers in China, for example. You wont win any damages from them, but if the GPL says that by using it, you agree to also release you own code under GPL, then at least everyone could start copying China's code. And if they complain, just point to the GPL code they used and say "you agreed to this by using the GPL code in the first place".
Re: TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS
#459Not trying to be pessimistic, but has any company ever been sued for illegally forking software as long as their end product was free (as in beer)?
Re: TikTok streaming software is an illegal fork of OBS
#460Earlier quoted context omitted.
Using a tool to violate copyright isn't a valid legal defense.
There is a "data minig" exception from copyright law, saying that you can use any available code to feed your AI and don't have respect the license. And the output of your AI is yours. So TikTok could claim they either use Copilot, which was fed OBS source, or that they created their own private AI similar to Copilot. Microsoft showed the way. It hasn't been tested at court AFAIK, but if a company can use this defens…
Local exceptions are a bad bet when dealing with global distribution.