Copyright infringement: Open-source project acts against chip manufacturer

Developers of the open-source multimedia framework FFmpeg have asked GitHub to remove the source code of Rockchip Linux's Media Process Platform (MPP) module via a DMCA takedown notice. GitHub repository github.com/rockchip-linux/mpp is now blocked, citing the DMCA complaint.

The developers accuse Rockchip of copying LGPL-licensed code from FFmpeg/libavcodec into its MPP multimedia middleware, unlawfully removing copyright notices, and re-releasing the code under the non-LGPL-compatible Apache 2.0 license. FFmpeg developers had reportedly been pointing out the issue to Rockchip for a considerable time and filed the DMCA complaint due to a lack of response, according to the letter.

The open-source project FFmpeg develops programs, libraries, and codecs for efficient and, in part, hardware-accelerated processing of multimedia data. The software is part of almost every Linux distribution, including Rockchip Linux. Rockchip, a manufacturer of cost-effective ARM SoCs for, among other things, TV and streaming boxes, inexpensive Android tablets and Chromebooks, single-board computers, and industrial IoT systems, maintains a Linux version adapted to its chips here. Board manufacturers and OEMs use Rockchip Linux as the basis for their devices' software. Community distributions for devices with Rockchip SoCs, such as Armbian and postmarketOS, also use code from Rockchip Linux. The source code for Rockchip Linux is available on GitHub.

If the matter cannot be resolved, many manufacturers of Linux and Android-based devices with Rockchip SoCs will face a problem, as the FFmpeg-based Media Process Platform (MPP) is responsible for hardware-accelerated video playback. They would then have to resort to other, less powerful software. Furthermore, they risk being sued themselves for copyright infringement as long as they use MPP on their devices.

(odi)