November 17, 2021 Streamlabs has now responded, stating that it is working on removing the OBS branding from its branding.
Open Broadcaster Software, known otherwise as ‘OBS’ is a staple streaming solution for many of the biggest streamers out there. Free-to-use and open source, OBS has helped revolutionise the streaming industry, with many other streaming tools building from its source code – Streamlabs’ own software being one such example.
However, the massively popular streaming tool has now claimed via Twitter that Streamlabs never actually received its permission to use the ‘OBS’ moniker as part of its product branding. “Near the launch of SLOBS, Streamlabs reached out to us about using the OBS name,” the tweet reads. “We kindly asked them not to. They did so anyway and followed up by filing a trademark.”
OBS states that up until now it had been attempting to solve the dispute privately, though Streamlabs has “been uncooperative at every turn”. The Loadout has reached out to Streamlabs for comment, and is currently awaiting a response.
The news that OBS and Streamlabs OBS are two entirely different solutions from two different organisations came as a surprise to a number of notable figures within the industry – which is perhaps indicative of why OBS wanted to keep its name out of Streamlabs’ branding in the first place.
Near the launch of SLOBS, @streamlabs reached out to us about using the OBS name. We kindly asked them not to. They did so anyway and followed up by filing a trademark
We’ve tried to sort this out in private and they have been uncooperative at every turnhttps://t.co/r1eXr3VxcJ
— OBS (@OBSProject) November 17, 2021
YouTube superstar Seán ‘Jacksepticeye’ McLoughlin says that he thought Streamlabs was “associated with you guys [OBS] and just a different version.” Twitch superstar ‘AnneMunition’ shared a similar sentiment, saying she thought “SLOBS was a collaborative project between OBS and SL”, and was completely unaware the OBS branding was used apparently against its wishes.
Other creators have called Streamlabs out on its apparent practices, threatening to up sticks from its services altogether. Political commentator Hasan ‘HasanAbi’ Piker says that he will “never use Streamlabs again” if the matter isn’t resolved.
Meanwhile, Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys – one of the biggest female streamers out there right now – says that she will call for her face to be removed from Streamlabs’ platform should it fail to resolve all of the issues listed throughout the thread OBS had replied to.
OBS’ original statement came as a response to Lightstream CEO Stu ‘StuV2’ Grubbs’s own accusations leveraged towards Streamlabs. He alleges that the company has plagiarised the web-based console streaming solution “down to the down to the layout and every word on our marketing site and our UX” for its new competitor service, Streamlabs Studio.
Streamlabs did respond to Lightstream, admitting that it had “made a mistake.” According to the company, the copy on its landing page “was placeholder text that went into production by error.” The copy on the Streamlabs Studio website has since been updated.
In a statement released after the publishing of this story, Streamlabs has now said that it is working to remove the OBS branding from its own branding.
“Streamlabs OBS is built on top of the OBS open-source platform; Streamlabs OBS is also open source, and our code is publicly available,” the statement reads. “We take responsibility for our actions and will support the community.”