11 ms·
The OBS project has accused Streamlabs of copying their name and trademark
- frankfrankfrank 5y agoIt's one of the biggest issues I have with the public/open source community; it is too naive and permissive in dealing with corporate entities (and government entities, for that matter) for whom there simply is no such thing as spirit and the only thing that matters to their lawyers and corporate psychopath executives is the letter and what they can get away with or even what resistance to abuse they have the power/money to crush.
- dylan604 5y agoIsn't something similar playing out with Mastadon and that other guy's website?
- throwaway81523 5y agoCan someone explain what OBS is? And yeah, some rando tried to trademark "Linux" some years back, lol. After a fair amount of hassle it ended up getting transferred to Linus Torvalds, which I guess was the best solution.
- charcircuit 5y agoOBS is software for producing and streaming live video content.
- zeeZ 5y agoWhile that is its main use, it's also great for recorded video content.
- MayeulC 5y agoYes, these years it seems like this is the de-facto screen recorder tool. "Open Broadcaster Software" -> https://obsproject.com https://obsproject.com
- Tijdreiziger 5y agoFor quick recordings, the screen recorder built into the Xbox Game Bar (Win+G) also does the job. Why Microsoft decided to put this functionality only in the Game Bar (and not also in, say, the Snipping Tool) is anyone's guess...
- pietrovismara 5y agoArguably THE open source software that revolutionized screen recording and live streaming. Not just software.
- Macha 5y agoTo be fair, Xsplit (closed source) was the one that was there as streaming got established, though OBS has taken over these days by being better and free (as in beer - though also being open source obviously helped get there).
- Sophira 5y agoAnd although OBS is most well known for being incredible streaming software, the fact that it can handle smooth video recording from games too (since once you have streaming you can pretty easily have recording too) means it's also displaced other video recording software such as Fraps, which used to be the go-to tool when recording games.
- reassembled 5y agoWirecast has existed since at least 2008, with most of the same core compositing and switching functionality we see in the space, although originally Wirecast did not support RTMP. It was originally only able to stream to QuickTime RTSP servers and Windows Media Server. XSplit emerged slightly before OBS Classic but OBS innovated with a far superior game capture implementation on Windows, supporting shared texture hooking across D3D8-D3D11 and OpenGL, which helped it gain massive traction with the Twitch crowd. After retaining a large user base it was eventually rewritten as the cross-platform OBS Studio.
- throwaway81523 5y agoThanks, and interesting. I had never heard of it before. I'm not really into video, but have used ffmpeg and icecast for that sort of thing, which worked but were very crude compared to what I see on youtube and the like.
- tehbeard 5y ago> ffmpeg and icecast Yeah for a server/embedded solution those are probably better to use for simple setup? But desktop usecase, OBS is pretty much a gold standard.
- imtringued 5y agoIt's the solution to the "Unregistered HyperCam 2" problem. In simplified words, it's a screen recording software that also lets you stream to twitch and other streaming portals. In practice it does way more than that though.
- dylan604 5y agothat's like saying Word lets you create a text document, but in practice it does way more than that though.
- garaetjjte 5y ago..which is true?
- dylan604 5y agomaybe, but if you asked me "What is Word", and I replied "you can make a text document with it" would be not a very useful answer. Sadly, most people just scratch the surface of what OBS can really do. If you really want to dig in to it, it is has the capabilities of a TV Broadcasting Studio for the financially constrained yet fanatically devoted to the cause level of features. I have used it in place of a TriCaster. I find myself constantly amazed at the things that can be achieved with this software to the point that I shake my head and think this shouldn't be possible. And then grin as other people think it was done in a studio. So, yes, this thing can make a text document.
- jasonwatkinspdx 5y agoOBS is a live / real time compositing system. It allows you do to quite sophisticated overlays, transitions, etc. You can think of it as the open source version of what traditional tv channels use to do all their on screen stuff. It's a real gem of the open source world.
- kazinator 5y agoThat's the Open(SUSE) Build System, right? ;)
- Smar 5y agoNowadays its name is just Open Build System :)
- account42 5y agoUnfortunately it still is mostly the openSUSE build service in practice. I wish canonical switched Launchpad's PPA system to OBS or at least added automatic rebuilds on dependency changes to their own system.
- Smar 5y agoWell, I use OBS to build Debian packages at work. But I guess companies want to have their own shiny thing, even if it is inferior to other solutions.
- forlorn 5y agoThe first thing I thought of. Apparently not.
- djbusby 5y agoThis is why it is important to trademark names in your FOSS projects
- Kelteseth 5y agoFor example, when someone would bundle OBS with a virus and create a fake website with OBS logo and everything, one could sue them for c̶o̶p̶y̶r̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ trademark infringement. They would still be allowed to do that with FOSS software, but would need to create their own reputation. Edit: Not copyright -> trademark
- yccs27 5y agoI think you mean suing for trademark infringement (because FOSS has permissive copyright), or am I just confused?
- oefrha 5y agoVery few non-corporate FOSS projects would have the funds to file a trademark, especially an international one considering one can be infringed from anywhere around the world. And time spent on filing would be time not advancing the actual project, unless a lawyer is hired, which makes it even more expensive. Even fewer would have the resources to actually pursue legal action if the trademark is infringed upon. This is probably not a realistic suggestion for all but a few hundred projects.
- 5y ago
- KennyBlanken 5y agoStreamlabs is also almost exactly copying pages from the OBS project website: https://twitter.com/StuV2/status/1460710778462482440 https://twitter.com/StuV2/status/1460710778462482440 Nearly identical titles, nearly identical general page layout, similar graphics. They even verbatim copied the user testimonial text. My guess is that they're going to Google Adwords themselves to the top of every relevant google search, and trick even people who have been to the correct OBS Project site into thinking "oh yeah, this is it, I'm in the right place!" and downloading streamlabs-obs. The OBS pages are copyrighted, so it seems to me like OBS Project should be able to hit Streamlabs' web providers with some DMCA complaints.
- erk__ 5y agoThat site have nothing to do with OBS really that is a separate project. https://golightstream.com/studio/ https://golightstream.com/studio/ https://streamlabsstudio.com/ https://streamlabsstudio.com/
- KennyBlanken 5y agoAh, yep, you're right. Unfortunately, I apparently can't edit my comment to correct this. Lovely.
- Tijdreiziger 5y agoOn HN, you can edit or delete comments for a little while after posting them, and after that they're locked in.
- 0des 5y agoI believe the limit is two hours.
- chipotle_coyote 5y agoThis is kind of an amazing implosion all at once on Twitter. The OBS Project accused Streamlabs of this after another streaming company, Lightstream, noted that Streamlabs had copy-and-pasted a marketing page from their product to use for Streamlabs' product, down to word-for-word copies of the "user" recommendations. https://twitter.com/Lightstream/status/1460709404609757185 https://twitter.com/Lightstream/status/1460709404609757185 And, also in that thread, El Gato -- makers of the hardware Stream Deck -- chimed in with a wry "know that feel," showing that "Streamlabs Stream Deck" was, let's say, strongly reminiscent of their product. https://twitter.com/elgato/status/1460722403261046789 https://twitter.com/elgato/status/1460722403261046789
- ycombinete 5y agomaybe it was coordinated?
- Splizard 5y agoMaybe they just finally had the courage to call streamlabs out on this.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- johanneskanybal 5y agoHappy to see this on the front page. What scumbaggery.
- hsn915 5y agoI legit thought OBS and Streamlabs where connected
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- ppod 5y agoSame here, was fairly new to OBS this year and I downloaded both thinking they were slightly different products from the same team.
- spacemanmatt 5y agoStreamlabs would like that very much. I wrote them a zesty email about pretending they (Streamlabs) created OBS and continue to control it as a sub-asset of Streamlabs. In fact, Streamlabs is entirely seperable.
- fortyseven 5y agoHonestly, I had no idea what the relationship was. I just assumed it was all kosher and there was a connection between them that was brokered long before I started messing around with streaming. Luckily I thought OBS was the better long-term bet and uninstalled the other one after comparing.
- unpopularopp 5y agoWell the queen of Twitch has spoken so it will be sorted out https://twitter.com/imane/status/1460818399374692355 https://twitter.com/imane/status/1460818399374692355
- blitzar 5y agoShe is threatening to collect her donations somewhere else. Brutal.
- wongarsu 5y agoPutting her money where her mouth is. And Pokimane does have some pull in the streaming community, so this could hurt Streamlabs quite a bit financially
- blitzar 5y ago> Streamlabs is free to use, we do not charge any fees and there is no monthly price. Please note that some services such as PayPal or Stripe charge their own fees that they collect separately. We do not charge you any additional fees on tips & donations. > Each tip viewers make will be 100% yours, excluding standard processing fees from credit cards. You have to be making money out of something to lose it when it goes away. They will however miss pokinanes $5.99 a month pro subscription. Will she leave and pay 5%++ to another donation provider (twitch: a $2 donation now results in the streamer receiving only $1.45 -- PayPal: A $1 tip will now only net you $0.48) on the millions a year in donations the multi-millionaire rakes in from non multi-millionaire viewers? Only time will tell.
- corobo 5y agoStreamlabs is set up in a way that it's super easy to sign up for their pro thing by accident while donating to a streamer. Their business model is "refund the complaints" Considering Pokimane went out of her way to upper-cap donations to a fiver I doubt she's concerned with losing money from this
- 5y ago
- chmod775 5y agoThis appears to be the trademark in question: https://trademarks.justia.com/882/96/streamlabs-88296466.html https://trademarks.justia.com/882/96/streamlabs-88296466.htm... In response someone likely affiliated with OBS filed their own trademark, though that was abandoned: https://trademarks.justia.com/884/36/obs-88436186.html https://trademarks.justia.com/884/36/obs-88436186.html
- thomcano 5y agoThis is some big news, I do appreciate that this is on the front page.
- tombert 5y agoYou know, I'll admit that this is ignorance on my end, but I honestly thought that Streamlabs was the owner of OBS, in that OBS was just an internal project that they open sourced. Clearly I'm wrong but I doubt I'm the only person who thought that. Seems like they're being douchebags if they're just taking the offensive and filing predatory trademarks.
- macksd 5y agoIf this is true, the detail that sticks out to me is that before the legal filings StreamLabs thought to reach out about using the name. If StreamLabs thought the names were similar enough that they reached out about using the name, that proves that even from their own former perspective, they're using a mark that was already recognized in the industry and similar enough to their own mark - surely consumers could have the same perspective (many in the comments here were already confused). They also can't claim ignorance. Why should they expect trademark law to now protect the name for them? The same thing apparently happened with Meta: http://meta.company/ http://meta.company/.
- dylan604 5y agoYou meant the company that doesn't have a website other than to complain someone is using their name? I don't buy into the meta.company claims at all with the "evidence" provided. I laughed at this this when it first appeared, and continue laughing at it now
- nabakin 5y agoI did too. There is no way Facebook didn't have the name 100% secured before announcing. This is just another example of journalists not doing their due diligence and Twitter being dumb.
- dylan604 5y agoI don't know anything about journalists or Twitter in this case specifically, but I agree flat out Twitter is dumb. I only know of the meta.company claim from a post made here on HN. I'm guessing it was somebody realizing that FB didn't claim all of the TLDs and trolled them about it. So I laugh at it because of that being a possibility as much as if it is a serious anything I laugh at how laughable their attempt at whatever they are attempting is.
- macksd 5y agoYes I chose my use of "apparently" and "if this is true" carefully. There is another widely reported instance, better known as Meta PC, filing before Facebook for the mark "Meta", covering "Computers, laptops and portable computers, tablets, computer peripherals, servers, networking equipment, software, computer components, namely, ram, disk drives, namely, hard and optical disk drives, and all related accessories, namely, keyboards, mice, wireless keyboards and mice, speakers, external hard drive backup devices, wireless air cards, wireless routers, monitors, chairs". This is indeed live on the USPTO search right now. That to me sounds like a potential problem.