FFmpeg issues DMCA takedown notice to Chinese semiconductor manufacturer Rockchip on GitHub



It has been revealed that FFmpeg , a free software for recording, converting, and playing video and audio files, has issued a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice to the GitHub repository of Rockchip , a semiconductor company founded in China in 2001, resulting in the repository being disabled.

GitHub · Where software is built
https://github.com/rockchip-linux/mpp

At the end of February 2024, FFmpeg issued a warning to Rockchip via its official X (formerly Twitter) account, alleging that FFmpeg code had been blatantly copied and pasted into a driver called MPP developed by Rockchip. FFmpeg is free software licensed under the LGPL , but Rockchip's use of FFmpeg violated the license.




In response, a person claiming to be a Rockchip MPP developer said, 'I am a Rockchip MPP developer. I apologize for using FFmpeg code due to a lack of understanding of the conflict between Apache and LGPL. I will replace this code in a future update. I also promise to do more research on open source licenses.' He promised to replace the problematic code.




At the end of December 2025, one year and ten months after this post, FFmpeg posted, 'After almost two years of waiting for Rockchip to fix FFmpeg's copyright infringement, one of the FFmpeg developers has finally taken action. Thousands of lines of code had been copied from FFmpeg,' and revealed that it had sent a DMCA takedown notice to Rockchip's GitHub repository.




The Rockchip GitHub repository, which was disabled due to a DMCA takedown notice, is shown below. When you open the page, you'll see the message 'Repository unavailable due to DMCA takedown notice.'

GitHub · Where software is built
https://github.com/rockchip-linux/mpp



On the social message board Hacker News, one commenter said, 'The problem is that Rockchip claimed MPP was Apache 2.0 licensed, but incorporated FFmpeg code. This is not permitted under the LGPL, which requires dynamic linking to the library.' Another commenter said , 'The LGPL does not require dynamic linking; it only requires that the distributed work be usable as a derived version of the LGPL. Distributing source code that can be built under Apache 2.0 undoubtedly meets the requirements of the LGPL. The problem here is not a technical violation of the LGPL, but that Rockchip does not own the copyright to FFmpeg and does not have the legal authority to release it under a license other than the LGPL. What Rockchip should have done was to incorporate the modified code into the forked project, clearly label it with the LGPL license, and link to it.'

In response to the Internet user's point that 'donations to (FFmpeg) are for supporting developers, not for paying legal fees,' FFmpeg responded, 'No FFmpeg funds were used for this DMCA takedown notice. This takedown notice is a personal action by an FFmpeg contributor.' The company emphasized that this takedown notice was issued by a single developer.




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in Software, Posted by logu_ii