Riot Games violate LGPL

[Illya]

Riot Games currently (as of LoL 9.23) distribute an 'ffmpeg.dll' (a weird amalgamation of the libraries) with their game.

I have attempted to contact them via several ways such as their own ticketing system, e-mail to their 'privacy' email address, and publicly via Twitter with no response.

Here is a dump of the global symbols used (most information including copyright notice has been stripped):

[Symbols]

nth paddr       vaddr      bind   type size name
――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――
51   0x00000000 0x10000000 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_Ordinal_1
1    0x0004d90c 0x1004e50c GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_buffer_create
2    0x0004dae8 0x1004e6e8 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_buffer_get_opaque
3    0x0004e5ac 0x1004f1ac GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_dict_count
4    0x0004e987 0x1004f587 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_dict_free
5    0x0004e5ba 0x1004f1ba GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_dict_get
6    0x0004e6a6 0x1004f2a6 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_dict_set
7    0x0004c300 0x1004cf00 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_force_cpu_flags
8    0x00051659 0x10052259 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_frame_alloc
9    0x0005220c 0x10052e0c GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_frame_clone
10   0x00051718 0x10052318 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_frame_free
11   0x00051739 0x10052339 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_frame_unref
12   0x00053098 0x10053c98 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_free
13   0x0005681e 0x1005741e GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_get_bytes_per_sample
14   0x0004c31f 0x1004cf1f GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_get_cpu_flags
15   0x0004ca8e 0x1004d68e GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_image_check_size
16   0x00007a3c 0x1000863c GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_init_packet
17   0x0005279f 0x1005339f GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_log_set_level
18   0x00052fa2 0x10053ba2 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_malloc
19   0x00052f98 0x10053b98 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_max_alloc
20   0x00007b77 0x10008777 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_new_packet
21   0x0000810c 0x10008d0c GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_packet_copy_props
22   0x00007f20 0x10008b20 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_packet_get_side_data
23   0x00007aca 0x100086ca GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_packet_unref
24   0x00007a17 0x10008617 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_rdft_calc
25   0x00007a1e 0x1000861e GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_rdft_end
26   0x000079c0 0x100085c0 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_rdft_init
27   0x00024094 0x10024c94 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_read_frame
28   0x00052cfa 0x100538fa GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_rescale_q
29   0x0005684d 0x1005744d GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_samples_get_buffer_size
30   0x00025b91 0x10026791 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_seek_frame
31   0x0004f21c 0x1004fe1c GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_av_strerror
32   0x0000519e 0x10005d9e GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_avcodec_align_dimensions
33   0x00018a5d 0x1001965d GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_avcodec_alloc_context3
34   0x0000bd5a 0x1000c95a GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_avcodec_decode_video2
35   0x000091ec 0x10009dec GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_avcodec_descriptor_get
36   0x00009239 0x10009e39 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_avcodec_descriptor_next
37   0x0000053e 0x1000113e GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_avcodec_find_decoder
38   0x0000d2e5 0x1000dee5 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_avcodec_flush_buffers
39   0x00018a94 0x10019694 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_avcodec_free_context
40   0x000061bb 0x10006dbb GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_avcodec_get_name
41   0x00005308 0x10005f08 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_avcodec_open2
42   0x00007835 0x10008435 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_avcodec_parameters_to_context
43   0x0000bc3c 0x1000c83c GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_avcodec_receive_frame
44   0x0000b3e8 0x1000bfe8 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_avcodec_send_packet
45   0x0002273c 0x1002333c GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_avformat_alloc_context
46   0x0002974b 0x1002a34b GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_avformat_close_input
47   0x00026d56 0x10027956 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_avformat_find_stream_info
48   0x00023361 0x10023f61 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_avformat_free_context
49   0x00022d27 0x10023927 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_avformat_open_input
50   0x0002c6f1 0x1002d2f1 GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_avio_alloc_context
51   0x0002dbef 0x1002e7ef GLOBAL FUNC 0    ffmpeg.dll_avio_close

[Carl Eugen Hoyos]

Where can I find this distribution?

[Illya]

It requires a League of Legends account and to download the game ​here. After installation (using Wine), ffmpeg.dll can be found at ~/.wine/drive_c/Riot Games/League of Legends/ffmpeg.dll.

[Hendrik]

If it's built in LGPL configuration it's not necessarily a license violation. Use of LGPL in a closed-source application is allowed, given certain conditions.

[Illya]

They do not release source, thus it is a LGPL violation.

[Elon Musk]

No it is not. Please stop opening pointless reports, it bloats database.

[Carl Eugen Hoyos]

At least provide md5 of the offending binary.

[Illya]

SHA256 27da40303de34a7cd02624da0efe1a0becacc7119814a19fae1fb113ce939c7b
MD5    87f978778b9ba6022c92b5b99bcf6d59

[mirh]

The situation is a bit ​unclear (is it just forgotten code that was only ever meant for internal usage, or is that actively being used in the game?), but if this is true not releasing the source code is a violation of the license.

The thing being LGPL just means that copyleft explicitly doesn't apply to anything linking to it. But the library itself is still protected. It is not a permissive license.