Last Friday we echoed the launch of TikTok Live Studio, the new desktop application for video game streaming developed by those responsible for the popular social network of short videos with the aim of starting to compete with Twitch and YouTube Gaming.
However, now this software is in the news again, and not because it has come out of the current private beta phase … but because not all the credit for its development goes to the programmers hired by ByteDance. As reported in Twitter, the streamers Naaackers, TikTok Live Studio (or rather parts of it) it would be nothing more than an unrecognized fork of OBS Studio, a popular recording and streaming software.
Why is this problematic? Well, because OBS is free software (which, of course, allows us to create our own forks) … but that’s it also means, in this case, that it is subject to the GPL (GNU software license) which requires sharing the source code of any derivative product.
This is why the GPL is called a ‘viral license’: any derivative of a GPL software is ‘infected’ with the same four freedoms (of use, distribution, access to the code, and modification) that it guarantees. This prevents, for example, that companies can reuse free code in their own proprietary products (not all free licenses are so restrictive in this sense).
Some users are talking about “TikTok stole OBS.” The term ‘theft’ is inaccurate and exaggerated in this case … but yes, there has been a license violation of the OBS code by ByteDance.
So a spokesperson for the OBS development team has decided to intervene in the debate on networks to redirect it, making it clear that they are betting on a policy based on deal with GPL infringements assuming good faith for the other party:
“In the case of TikTok / Bytedance, we will be happy to have a friendly working relationship with them as long as they comply with the license.”
In Hacker News, another member of the OBS team explained the reasons why they had analyzed the files from the TikTok Live Studio installation looking for proof of use of your work:
“I saw a tweet yesterday from someone who is on [el grupo de usuarios de] the beta version, and as with any live streaming desktop software (and especially with “Studio” in the name) I was curious if they were using any code from OBS Studio or if they had developed everything internally.
“Without even installing it, when opening the configuration files I immediately noticed warning signs, in particular files such as’ GameDetour64.dll ‘,’ Inject64.exe ‘and’ MediaSDKGetWinDXOffset64.exe ‘which are terribly similar to the way our game capture system works in OBS Studio, based on’ graphics-hook64.dll ‘,’ inject-helper64.exe ‘and’ get-graphics-offsets64.exe ‘”.
“I am not in the business of checking these things in everything I find, but when something is so obvious, it requires further investigation, and after a bit of decompilation I was able to confirm that the OBS code was present in its binaries“.
For now ByteDance has not officially commented on the matter, although we will be aware of the news that may arise.