TikTok and similar companies have illegally forked OBS Studio, a GPL-licensed FOSS streaming platform, without releasing their modifications under the same license. The GPL explicitly allows commercial use and even rebranding of free software, but requires derivative works to also be released under GPL. The post explains the legal and ethical framework around commercial FOSS forks, contrasts it with the gaming/modding community's different understanding of copyright, and argues that while commercial exploitation of free software is legitimate and even encouraged, it must follow the license terms — it's not a free lunch.
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