Streamlabs OBS Controversy Explained

Streamlabs OBS Controversy Explained

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Streamlabs is facing criticism following accusations of plagiarism and unethical business practices by rivals OBS, Lightstream, and others.

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Streamlabs, the company behind popular streaming software Streamlabs OBS, has stirred up some controversy involving their name and the press release materials for its new Streamlabs Studio – namely, in plagiarizing content from Lightstream. In light of the recent controversy, a number of other individuals and companies have stepped forward to make their own thoughts – and bad past experiences with Streamlabs – public knowledge.

Streamlabs OBS, a popular game capture software and streaming platform, is well-known among streamers and YouTubers alike, one of the more popular software packages for capturing game footage for the sake of a livestream or recording video directly. Streamlabs Studio was intended to be the console variant of this service, allowing streamers to stream their gameplay to Streamlabs Studio, where they could then personalize a setup using custom overlays. The controversy surrounding this, however, has to do with the accusations of plagiarism from Lightstream.

Lightstream is a similar service to that of Streamlabs, offering an alternative browser-based livestreaming studio. Advertised as being a simpler, more user friendly livestreaming tool than competitors, Lightstream’s market share was based within providing easy-to-use tools for streamers who may not know all the ins and outs of programs like Streamlabs. Lightstream hoped to bring this style of user-friendly streaming tools to consoles, outside of built in Twitch integration on consoles, releasing Lightstream Studio earlier this year – before Streamlabs’ own version was announced with near-identical advertising materials.

Streamlabs OBS Changes Name To Streamlabs Following OBS Tweet

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Streamlabs Studio has come under fire on Twitter following Lightstream’s tweet pointing out the similarities in their services and their advertising materials. Everything from the layout, to large sprawls of text seem copied directly from the Lightstream posting. Although Streamlabs has attempted to push back against the accusations of plagiarism by referring to their posting as “placeholder text” that was accidentally posted publicly. This has only fanned the flames, however, with people coming down on Streamlabs for plagiarism and shady business practices. As a larger company, it’s easy for onlookers to see Streamlabs in the wrong, seemingly stealing a smaller competitors advertising materials for themselves.

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Open Broadcast Service, or OBS, has also spoken up about Streamlabs’ past practices. OBS is a classic, free piece of open-source software for recording and livestreaming video, and Streamlabs was built on its open-source code. When Streamlabs OBS first launched, they requested permission to use OBS in the name. OBS requested that the company not do so, but Streamlabs carried on regardless, taking the name Streamlabs OBS and trademarking it. This has led to confusion on the part of many volunteers at OBS, which reported that Streamlabs users often attempt to contact OBS for refunds and technical support, and that outside entities OBS has attempted to work with have been confused as to the identities of the two companies.

Streamers Drop Streamlabs, Former Employees Allege Internal Issues

Know that feel. pic.twitter.com/lqwWxL4pY9

Controversy is nothing new to live streaming, but this has resulted in a bigger backlash than usual, with several companies and individuals, such as Elgato and artist MortMort. OBS stated in its tweet that the company had attempted to resolve this in private with Streamlabs to no avail. The situation with Lightstream was possibly the catalyst to get OBS to finally go public with this grievance, and it seems to have gained enough of a following to convince Streamlabs to formally remove OBS from their name. Despite this change, however, many involved see this as too little too late, with streamers on Twitter voicing their plans to leave the platform, and some big-name streamers like Pokimane and Hassan threatening to formally end their Streamlabs sponsorships if nothing changes (as reported by dotesports.com).

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Former employees are also getting into the mix, with Twitter threads detailing Streamlabs practices they found unsavory, particularly being singled out for speaking up when it came to actions that were seen as unethical. While the ultimate veracity of all these claims is difficult to determine, it points to a work culture that corroborates at least some of the misgivings already coming from numerous people outside the company.

During my time at Streamlabs so many people in marketing were reprimanded, put on PIP plans, and/or fired for speaking up against unethical business practices to the point where they basically got rid of the entire marketing team by late 2018.

Streamer JERICHO seems to be deciding to drop the platform altogether, joining the ranks of numerous smaller streamers who voiced their support for OBS Studio and talked about making the switch. JackSepticEye also implied that Streamlabs’ apology to Lightstream was a “bold face lie”, and went out of his way to respond to the OBS tweet that brought the naming issue into the limelight, thanking the team for creating the software.

Really thought they were associated with you guys and just a different version. Thank you for your software, it’s revolutionised the way so many of us do our jobs

Despite Streamlabs being a popular software package, the controversy has shown that these issues are important not only to rival companies, but to the community of people at large who use the software. It remains to be seen whether the efforts that Streamlabs has made in apologizing, changing the offending text plagiarized from Lightstream, and dropping the OBS from its name will be enough to quell the unrest and stave off an exodus of players.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/streamlabs-obs-lightstream-controversy-plagiarism-elgato-streaming-platform/

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