GitHub has disabled a Linux multimedia repository maintained by Rockchip following a DMCA takedown request filed by a contributor to the FFmpeg project.
The complaint centers not merely on code reuse, but on Rockchip’s decision to relicense FFmpeg-derived code under an incompatible license, which is alleged to violate the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).
According to the filing, Rockchip’s Media Process Platform (MPP) repository includes multiple source files derived directly from FFmpeg’s libavcodec codebase. While the LGPL permits reuse of FFmpeg code, it does so only under strict conditions. Chief among them is that the reused code must remain under an LGPL-compatible license and retain original copyright and attribution notices.
The complainant argues that Rockchip failed to meet these requirements. Instead, the copied code was redistributed under the Apache License, which is incompatible with the LGPL in this context.
On top of that, the DMCA notice further alleges that Rockchip removed original copyright headers and author information, effectively presenting the code as its own.
The filing lists decoder implementations for AV1, H.265, and VP9 as examples, noting that the code’s origin is evident from identical structures, comments, and even commented-out calls referencing FFmpeg functions by their original names.
Rockchip was reportedly informed of the licensing issue nearly two years ago and repeatedly stated it would address the issue. However, no corrective action was taken, prompting the formal DMCA request. So, in the end, the expected happened.
Following the complaint, GitHub disabled public access to the affected repository. At the time of writing, the repository remains unavailable, and no counter-notice has been made public.
Rockchip is a Chinese semiconductor vendor whose system-on-chip platforms are widely used in single-board computers, Android devices, media players, and embedded Linux systems. Its MPP framework is intended to provide hardware-accelerated video encoding and decoding for modern codecs on Rockchip hardware.
