Streamlabs is one of the leading providers of live streaming software and tools, but the platform has come under fire from several other software and hardware brands, along with streamers who represent and use the platform to do their job—including Pokimane and Hasan.
Following the announcement of Streamlabs Studio, a new web-based broadcasting studio launched in partnership with Twitch that aims to give more broadcasting customization and options to users on Xbox consoles, an already existing cloud-driven creative suite called out some issues.
Lightstream already offered a cloud-based way for console streamers to customize and optimize their streams through a mobile browser, which is usable with Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook from both Xbox and PlayStation. And, when Streamlabs announced its newest project, the pre-existing platform pointed out that the promotional imagery and messaging used by Streamlabs Studio was nearly identical to its own.
This pretty blatant example of plagiarism extends beyond the product text being identical, outside some subjects being changed, or the exact same formatting for all the slightly different imagery. According to the CEO and co-founder of Lighstream and its analytics branch Rainmaker, Stu Grubbs, everything down to the user experience has allegedly been copied.
Twitch streamer and former Lightstream employee Brandon “iamBrandon” Stennis also pointed out that the reviews included in the imagery are reused from Lightstream’s website, since he was the one who obtained permission to use them from the original posters.
It didn’t end with Lightstream either. Both the Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) team and streaming hardware company Elgato noted their own experiences with Streamlabs copying something of theirs. Specifically for OBS, the community team noted that Streamlabs approached them and asked for permission to use the OBS name when launching Streamlabs OBS.
Despite denying their request, Streamlabs used the OBS name anyways and filed a trademark after doing so. This has led to multiple complications and confusion among users for both platforms and companies who didn’t know that the two entities weren’t partnered.
Elgato’s response was a bit lighter. The company shared a meme in response to Lightstream’s post suggesting that Streamlabs Deck mobile application was a close copy of their Stream Deck product’s digital variant.
After all of the fallout with other streaming software and hardware companies, Streamlabs also had several big streamers speak out about the situation, with Pokimane as the driving force.
Pokimane is a partnered streamer with Streamlabs, with the platform actively using her image and standing to promote the product on the company’s home page. In response to OBS’ thread, Pokimane stated that she would ask Streamlabs to remove her face from the platform and look for alternatives for her streaming services like donations if they did not resolve the “entire thread of issues.”
Hasan echoed those sentiments, noting that he would never use Streamlabs again if the issues aren’t immediately taken care of.
Streamlabs did respond to the original Lightstream Tweet, but the message was quickly torn apart. Users pointed out that the imagery, formatting, and other content couldn’t have just been placeholder info because the company used it in all of their announcements, including the press email sent to Dot Esports. Former Streamlabs employees and other people in the streaming world even pointed out how this practice of copying or using potential unethical practices isn’t anything new.
It is unclear how this new development will affect the Streamlabs Studio rollout and the platform’s partnership with Twitch.
Dot Esports has reached out to Streamlabs for comment on the situation.
