Update November 17 2:08PM EST: Streamlabs has responded to the complaints made by OBS, and Lightstream.
In regards to OBS and the Streamlabs OBS name, they said (thanks @thatmitchcanter for spotting it) in a pinned tweet,
We are taking immediate action to remove OBS from our name.
Streamlabs OBS is built on top of the OBS open-source platform; Streamlabs OBS is also open source, and our code is publicly available.
We take responsibility for our actions and will support the community.
Less visibly they also replied to Lightstream's allegations stating,
We made a mistake. Text on the landing page was placeholder text that went into production by error. This is our fault. We removed the text as soon as we found out. Our intended version is now live. Lightstream team is great and we’ve reached out directly to them to apologize.
Original story below
Lightstream, OBS, and others are airing out their dirty laundry with Streamlabs' questionable practices. Among these claims are accusations of copying their landing pages, using the OBS name despite being requested not to, and more.
Yesterday, the Twitter account for the free livestreaming studio program Lightstream posted a tweet showing some extreme similarities between the landing page for Lightstream and Streamlabs. Other than some layout changes and minor rewrites, it's easy to tell that these two pages are suspiciously similar. Some commenters even noted that the testimonials at the bottom of the page are just about the same. Lightstream co-founder @StuV2 added that Streamlabs' team "should be ashamed," adding that they clearly weren't satisfied with riding off of the hard work of OBS, a third livestreaming program. Elgato, another streaming platform, shared a meme remarking on another bit on Streamlabs similar to Elgato's content.
🤡 Hey, can I copy your homework?
— Lightstream (@Lightstream) November 16, 2021
▽ Yeah, just change it up a bit so it’s not obvious you copied.
🤡 Bet. pic.twitter.com/xODY5uDZeP
Responding to Stu's tweet, OBS shared their own story about Streamlabs and their program SLOBS (Streamlabs OBS.) Near the launch of SLOBS, Streamlabs reached out to OBS about using the OBS name. Despite being told not to, Streamlabs still used the name and filed a trademark for it. "We’ve tried to sort this out in private and they have been uncooperative at every turn," they add, also noting in a follow-up tweet that this issue has caused confusion among users and companies who don't realize the difference between the products. Even YouTubers such as Jacksepticeye admitted to being confused by the names.
Meanwhile, others on social media have also taken to criticising Streamlabs and their shady business practices. Several of them namedrop better services to use, such as StreamElements or OBS. Streamer and YouTuber CallMeKevin mentions changing to StreamElements for alerts because it felt like Streamlabs was "trying to trick people into singing up for their premium service" and made it awkward to cancel the subscription. Imane, a notable streamer and partner for Steamlabs, told them that they better resolve that thread worth of issues or she'll ask them to take her face off the platform and look for another donation service.
