The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 11.17 GUESS WHO JUST GOT EXPOSED! Hasan Piker, Pokimane, & More Denounce Streamlabs As Scandal Goes Viral

Episode Date: November 17, 2021

Go to https://noom.com/phil and take your free 30-second quiz! Thank you #noom for sponsoring today’s video! More PDS: https://youtu.be/0A36tKIHm64 TEXT ME! [phone] Get More Phil: https://linktr.ee/PhilipDeFranco -- 00:00 - Streamlabs Accused of Copying Lightstream, OBS, and Elgato 06:35 - WSJ Alleges Activision CEO Bobby Kotick Knew of Company Issues, Threatened Employee 09:17 - Sponsor 10:11 - Chrissy Teigen, MrBeast Spark Backlash & Conversation with Squid Game Recreations 13:17 - Apple Will Sell Parts for Home Repairs 14:43 - Biden Administration Reopens Oil and Gas Leasing in Gulf of Mexico Days After Climate Pledge -- ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ Streamlabs Accused of Copying Lightstream, OBS, and Elgato: https://roguerocket.com/2021/11/17/twitch-streamlabs/ WSJ Alleges Activision CEO Bobby Kotick Knew of Company Issues, Threatened Employee: https://twitter.com/WSJ/status/1460740863978614795?s=20 Chrissy Teigen, MrBeast Spark Backlash & Conversation with Squid Game Recreations: https://roguerocket.com/2021/11/17/chrissy-teigen-backlash-squid-game-party/ Apple Will Sell Parts for Home Repairs: https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/17/22787144/apple-home-repair-iphone-mac-parts-tools-instructions Biden Administration Reopens Oil and Gas Leasing in Gulf of Mexico Days After Climate Pledge: https://roguerocket.com/2021/11/17/biden-oil-and-gas-climate-pledge/ ​​✩ STORIES NOT IN TODAY’S SHOW ✩ Staples Center Will Become Crypto.com Arena After $700 Million Naming Deal: https://roguerocket.com/2021/11/17/staples-center-crypto-com-arena/ —————————— Executive Producer: Amanda Morones Edited by: James Girardier, Julie Goldberg, Maxwell Enright Art Department: Brian Borst, William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Cory Ray, Brian Espinoza, Maddie Crichton, Lili Stenn, Neena Pesqueda Production Team: Zack Taylor, Emma Leid ———————————— #DeFranco #Streamlabs #Pokimane ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup you beautiful bastards. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show. Hey, hit that like button to help spread some common sense news coverage here. I have a special show for you today and let's just jump into it. You know, the first thing that we've got to talk about today is this spicy, spicy business news.

We're talking about a company getting exposed and this company getting caught red-handed in public. Right, so where this story starts is that yesterday, Twitch announced that it's teaming up with an online broadcasting customization company by the name of Streamlabs Studios. With the purpose of that collaboration being to make Xbox streams look better.

Often streamers need both a PC and a device known as a capture card if they wanna add widgets and overlays such as a chat panel. However, with this implementation of Streamlabs, Twitch creators would be able to pay to personalize their streams with those features directly, even when just using a phone or a tablet. Which would have probably been

just a universally loved announcement for streamers. Like, yes, make it less complicated. But what this announcement ended up doing was leading to allegations of plagiarism and then just opening the door for a lot of other stuff. Starting with Lightstream, an already existing online broadcasting customization company, tweeting, hey, can I copy your homework?

Yeah, just change it up a bit so it's not obvious you copied, bet. And then showing this absolutely mind blowing side by side images showing how stream labs is Promotional messaging was nearly identical to its own and I'm talking about even down to the user Reviews with I am Brandon TV tweeting wait. Holy shit. The user reviews are even a copy I know because I reached out to the people in the reviews for these comments when I worked at light stream You also had light stream CEO and co-founder saying the team at Streamlabs should be ashamed,

but also adding it's not just Lightstream here. In fact, later in the day, as this was getting more and more traction, we saw developers of the open source software OBS tweeting, Streamlabs reached out to us about using the OBS name. We kindly asked them not to. They did so anyway and followed up by filing a trademark. We've tried to sort this out in private

and they have been uncooperative at every turn, which while not technically illegal, is something that has led to a lot of confusion among users of both platforms that have assumed that the two are partners. With OBS also noting that Streamlabs has repeatedly disregarded the spirit of open source and of giving back, given that it's now seemingly

trying to profit off of using OBS's name recognition and putting it behind a paywall. And finally, as far as companies go, you had Elgato jumping into the mix, memeing the situation, saying, hey, first time. Seeming to imply that Streamlabs also copied the names of one of its features, if not just the feature itself. So with all this, we saw a lot of outrage online,

which, you know, when there's outrage about a business that's not always like a death blow. I think about how many companies are like, I don't trust them, I don't like them, but you still use them. But I will say that the gaming community in that respect is kind of built different. If you are seen in any way as hurting the gaming community,

they will bury you. And yeah, I mean that for the community in any way as hurting the gaming community, they will bury you. And yeah, I mean that for the community in general, but also the key streamers that use these tools. Massive creators like Jacksepticeye calling them out, saying, hey, you're lying, once they tried to explain the situation. As well as creators like Ahsan Piker tweeting, I will never use Streamlabs again

if they don't immediately resolve this matter. As well as seeing massive creators and streamers like Alinity tweeting, I just want to say, I've had an amazing experience with StreamElement. And she wasn't alone in that, a lot of people recommending alternatives. And even really streamers like Alinity tweeting, I just want to say I've had an amazing experience with stream element. And she wasn't alone in that, a lot of people recommending alternatives. And even really key creators like Pokimane, who not only is a massive streamer, but actually is partnered with Streamlabs saying, Streamlabs better resolve this entire thread of issues or I'll be asking them to take my face off the platform and looking to use another donation service.

And like often happens in these situations that are getting bigger and bigger. We're seeing even more accusations getting thrown out. With those even including one who said, "'During my time at Streamlabs, "'so many people in marketing were reprimanded, "'put on PIP plans and or fired "'for speaking up against unethical business practices "'to the point where they basically got rid "'of the entire marketing team by late 2018.'" So you have all of that.

And then, you know, as far as what Streamlabs has responded with, "'Until this morning, the only thing Streamlabs "'had said publicly was in response "'to those first marketing accusations by Lightstream. And they are saying, 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. Though, like I mentioned with Jacksepticeye, not a lot of people are buying that excuse or apology. And then this morning we saw Streamlabs

making another statement, this time saying it's taking immediate action to remove OBS from its name. And adding 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 we'll support the community. Also with this, I reached out to Streamlabs to see if they had any other further comments on this. As of right now, they've not gotten back to me. I also reached out to the CEO and co-founder of Lightstream, Stu, and he did get back. So with Stu, I was really interested with his thoughts regarding Twitch and Streamlabs regarding their partnership, because he also tweeted, I'm curious if Twitch will continue to support their partnership with Streamlabs, given all the information coming from all corners of the industry, especially the former employees revealing all the unethical practices that take place.

While we were talking, he expanded on that. So we were caught quite off guard with Streamlabs announcement, obviously even more off guard that it remarkably resembled our very unique UX in that situation and our word for word, our copy and our testimonials. In that situation, I think you're looking at, you know,

potentially intellectual property theft and the support of that. And when your entire business is based on working with creators who are generating their own intellectual property and their own creative every day, you know, can you trust the platform you're working with to make the right decisions when they witness this kind of behavior from partners they're engaging with? So I don't know what the right answer is. I'm not here to say what Twitch should do, but it is definitely something that should be discussed on their end. And I'm very curious where it comes out. Also, another notable moment from this quick interview was I asked you, is there anything you want to say to Streamlabs? Is there anything you want to say to anyone? And this is what he said. I don't really have anything to say directly to Streamlabs, but I do have

something to say to a lot of the great entrepreneurs out there that have built some awesome products that help creators engage their audiences. And that's, you know, stand up for yourself, understand that what you built has value. And if you're building something with your heart, be kind to those people on your way up, treat your community like your own and really lift as you rise, you know. So I think we saw a lot of really great people come out in those tweets and a lot of people I respect over the years that I watched, you know, build with all their hearts

some really cool stuff for the creative community. So I'm looking forward to seeing more of that. And I hope that this doesn't stop any other entrepreneurs for taking the leap and building some cool tools. And so where I'll end this for now is it's very hard to look at a situation and not go, yeah, fuck Streamlabs. Like, again, in art and business, there's always a little copying here or there,

but this is egregious. It really feels like you got caught with your pants down pissing on everyone, and you're like, no, no, no, no, no, it's just raining. But yeah, good luck trying to calm down and win back the gaming community. So, of course, with this story, I am passing the question off to you. I'd love to know any and all thoughts you have on this. One of the biggest questions ends up going out to Twitch. What is their response?

What is their reaction going to be to this whole Streamlabs shit show? You're partnered and a lot of people that use your service are angry, so now what? Also, while Streamlabs is getting a lot of attention today, we should not skip over what's happening with Activision and specifically Activision CEO, Bobby Kotick. You have the Wall Street Journal

now posting massive allegations. All of it connected to the situation that began back in July when the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing sued Activision Blizzard for gender discrimination and sexual harassment. Since then, we've seen more allegations walk out, some in-game changes, and even multiple high-profile employees leaving.

And amid all of that, you had Kotick basically saying that a majority of these allegations were new to him. Also adding in a recent interview that he's been transparent with the company's board of directors saying, I am very committed to making sure we have the most welcoming, most inclusive workplace in the industry. However, now with this report, you have the Wall Street Journal saying that for years, Kodak knew about rampant sexual misconduct at the company. In fact, saying that in 2018, Activision reached an out-of-court settlement with a former female employee who'd accused her male supervisor of raping her in 2016 and 2017 after being pressured to drink too much

at work-related events. And despite firing that supervisor two months after receiving the email, Kodak allegedly never told the company's board about the incident. In fact, the article even says that Kodak failed to inform the board about aspects of other incidents that he knew of even after regulators began investigating them in 2018.

And adding, some departing employees who were accused of misconduct were praised on the way out while their coworkers were asked to remain silent about the matters. For example, in 2019, Kodak reportedly stepped in to save a supervisor from being fired after an employee accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2017, even though Activision's HR department

specifically recommended that he be fired. And in one situation last year that Kodak was reportedly aware of, 30 female employees in Activision's e-sports division said they had been subjected to unwanted touching, demeaning comments, exclusion from important meetings, and unsolicited comments on their appearance. So a spokesperson has argued that the company took steps

to fix the issue, including providing diversity and inclusion training to the Esports leadership team. But seemingly the worst of it, and the Wall Street Journal kind of buried the lead here. Reportedly in 2006, Kotick allegedly left one of his assistants a voicemail where he threatened to have her killed. While he settled that incident out of court,

a spokesperson Appears to now have confirmed that it did actually happen though. They tried to downplay it saying Mr. Kote quickly apologized 16 years ago for the obviously hyperbolic and inappropriate voicemail and he deeply regrets the Exaggeration and tone in his voicemail to this day now all that said following the publication of this article We saw Activision responding saying that it was disappointed in the Wall Street Journal's reporting saying that it represents a misleading view of Activision responding, saying that it was disappointed in the Wall Street Journal's reporting, saying that it represents a misleading view of Activision Blizzard and our CEO. But also in response to the article, a group of employees yesterday staged

another walkout midday, calling for Kodak's resignation, saying, we will not be silenced until Bobby Kodak has been replaced as CEO and continue to hold our original demand for third-party review by an employee chosen source. Also, as far as Kodak himself, he has not directly responded to this report, though he is a busy guy,

with him currently under investigation by the SEC for how much he knew about these incidents But yeah, that is ultimately where we are right now It's gonna be interesting to see what happens with the SEC as well as just internally with the employees and upper management Yeah, ultimately for now we'll have to wait and see. But from that I want to take a second to thank the sponsor of today's show Noom. You know for me using Noom has been about helping develop healthier habits and holding myself accountable for my food and exercise choices. And while I've been using it, I don't feel as lost or unmotivated in my journey to a better relationship with my mind and my body.

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And then, because I've gotten a lot of people recommending different versions of this story, let's talk about this new wave of Squid Game backlash. You know, it's not really so much about the show itself, but rather people recreating it, right? Because it's a show about people struggling in debt, essentially people that society forgot, people so desperate that they will participate

in a series of school children games to get out of that debt. But if they lose, they die. That's how desperate they are. That is how dire their situations are. And that's also why the series has been praised for the way that it examines social inequality, which is also why an increasing number of people have an issue with rich people

essentially playing the squid game. Over the weekend, for example, Chrissy Teigen posted a series of photos on Instagram where she's dressed as a red light, green light girl, along with pictures of people in the famous tracksuits reaching for cash, fancy looking drinks being presented by people dressed as game workers. What looks like a check for the squid game winner whose prize included flights to Napa Valley and a dinner at the French Laundry. With Teigen writing, where do I even begin? What an absolutely epic night. My dream came true of watching my friends fight to the death. Dunk tank, musical chairs, hide and seek, followed by a very riveting final game of pin the tail on the donkey. With a large number of people seemingly angry about this, or at the very least critiquing it. People saying things like, I'm sorry, rich people are literally so tone deaf. Squid Game was literally about people whose lives were so awful because of being poor that they'd rather play a game of literal life or death to escape going back to poverty, and Chrissy Teigen is really reenacting it in her mansion. As well as people saying,

you understand you're the problem, right? But also you have people defending Teigen saying, it's really not that deep. Saying yes, it is this show that has this message, but also you can take the game elements and just have fun with it. Some here also saying this feels kind of like a double standard,

with many pointing out the numerous online creators who have done their own versions of Squid Game. Most recently, and I would argue most notably because I, the amount of money it looks like he's putting into this is wild. You've got Mr. Beast, right? He announced a while back that he was making his own Squid Game where contestants could win prizes.

Sharing some of the sets that they built on social media. Also revealing that the total cost for this is $3.5 million. Two million to build and produce, another 1.5 million for prizes. Though I think the counter to there being a double standard is there has been outrage against Mr. Beast here. With people saying kind of along those same things. This is in poor taste. Instead of using all that money there, he could have donated it.

But also he had a ton of people coming to his defense, both creators and viewers alike, noting that Jimmy does a lot of good with the spotlight and money that comes into his life. Whether it be big group charity efforts like Team Trees or Team C's, as well as his channel and charity Beast Philanthropy. I mean, you have all those food drives. Well, of course, with this story, I'd love to then pass the question off to you, whether it be about the Chrissy Teigen situation or the Mr. Beast situation. But where I'll end it is with my opinion

regarding the Mr. Beast stuff, I don't see how you could get angry at him. Like, even if he went super cynical and you think that all the philanthropic stuff that he does is kind of just PR insulation, even with that, he still provides such a massive net good. The success of this project ultimately makes everything that he does bigger, including his philanthropy.

Plus, I don't think recreations like this, that it's that deep. And personally for me, the most notable thing out of this whole story is, just look at Mr. Beast. This is a guy that just four years ago, his projects were him saying Logan Paul a hundred thousand times in a video. And in just four years,

his projects now involve $3.5 million productions for possibly a single video. And of all places, that content being on YouTube, we're living in a world that I could have never imagined 15 years ago when I started. Then in big tech news, we had Apple announcing today that it'll start allowing customers to repair their own iPhones

and even provide instructions and sell parts for people to do so. Which I mean, for those unfamiliar, that is a massive change of company policy. The press release noting that the initial focus of the program called self-service repair will be iPhone display, battery and camera. But saying that will be expanded later next year.

And actually for those repairs, people have access to manuals, can order more than 200 Apple parts and tools online, and will receive Apple store credit for returning broken parts. Once again, I really cannot stress enough how much of a 180 this is for Apple. I mean, as Vice even noted,

Apple has generally fought against independent repair and even suing repair companies that use what they referred to as counterfeit parts. With Apple even lobbying against right to repair legislation that would require Apple to do what it just announced that it will do voluntarily. And so with this news, yes, you have people that have been pushing

for the right to repair, cheering the decision, but also noting that there's still a long way to go. People like Nathan Proctor, the head of the US Public Interest Research Group's right to repair campaign, telling reporters, "'As more and more manufacturers show "'that repair access is reasonable and doable, "'it should become clear to lawmakers

"'that there are no more excuses. "'It's time to give every American the right to repair "'so everyone can fix all their products. "'That's the way it should be.'" And in the meantime, sans any legislation actually getting through, it will be interesting to see if other individual companies cave to the pressure as well. Because one, I mean, let's be honest, Apple is a massive, massive company. There's a lot of weight there.

There's a lot of attention there. But also, two, Apple didn't do this out of the kindness of their heart. I think they saw where things were going and how they were probably going to get hit, so why not get ahead of it? Then we should definitely talk about Biden absolutely pissing off environmentalists. And that's because today the Biden administration opened up more than 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to auction for drilling rights

in what will be the biggest offshore oil and gas lease sale in American history. The enormous lease sale, which covers an area larger than New Mexico, was originally planned under the Trump administration. And according to a government analysis, the move could generate up to 1.1 billion barrels of oil and 4.42 trillion cubic feet of natural

Gas in the next few decades But of course as a result experts and environmentalists warn that this could have a devastating impact on climate change in fact one report From the Center for American progress found that the sale could emit upwards of 723 million metric tons of co2 Throughout its duration that is equivalent to operating more than 70% of the country's coal plants for an entire year One of the co-authors of that study telling the Washington Post that the move will lock in 10 years worth of leases and potentially up to 50 years worth of oil and gas development. Many others describing the sale as a carbon bomb that will set back U.S. climate goals for decades and condemned Biden for opening up this kind of production at a time when we should be transitioning away from fossil fuels. Also beyond the impact this could have, many were also outraged that this happened just days after the historic talks of the UN COP26 climate summit, where notably Biden vowed the US would lead by example to address climate change.

Others also slamming Biden because the move goes against his pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, as well as his campaign promise to ban new oil and gas leasing on public land and water. Though regarding that, Biden did actually initially try to achieve that last goal with him signing an executive order that paused new permits shortly after taking office in January,

with a group of states then suing and a Trump appointed judge in Louisiana blocking the pause. We also saw in a briefing earlier this week, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki saying the administration's hands were tied and that it is required to comply with the injunction, even though the DOJ is appealing the move and so the legal battle is ongoing.

But still, you have multiple legal experts saying that there is more that the Biden administration could have done to delay or halt the sale. Saying, for example, the DOJ could have just asked the appeals court to stay the order from the Louisiana judge blocking the pause on permits while the legal battle played out. Others have also argued that the Louisiana ruling

doesn't force the administration to move forward with the lease sale, so officials could have just stopped or delayed a scheduled sale or just simply scaled back some of the areas in the Gulf that are available for leasing. And all of that is why I have critics very worried about Biden. Now, because here's a fun fact.

Biden has actually handed out drilling permits at a rate of over 300 a month since taking office, which is actually more than even Trump. Yeah, for now, we're gonna have to wait to see what happens, right? Ongoing litigation from third parties are attempting to stop this effort. But also it's unclear if they'll actually get an answer

in their case before January 1st when the leases go into effect. But ultimately that is where that story and actually today's show ends. Of course with that, whether it be the final story, the first one, anything in between, I'd love to know your thoughts in those comments down below.

With that said, as always, my name is Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow.