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Open source at Back

Back is built on other people's work. This page names it, reproduces the licences that ask to be reproduced, and tells you how to get the source for the parts that are copyleft. If we have got an attribution wrong or missed one, write to legal@back.dev and we will fix it.

FFmpeg — and how to get its source

Backdrop does its video work in your browser using a WebAssembly build of FFmpeg, distributed as @ffmpeg/core. That build is configured with --enable-gpl, --enable-libx264 and --enable-libx265, so the whole artefact is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later.

We serve it to you at https://backdrop.back.dev/core/ffmpeg-core.wasm and /core/ffmpeg-core.js. The full licence text is at /licenses/GPL-2.0.txt.

Written offer for source code. For at least three years from the date at the top of this page, we will give any third party a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source for the exact @ffmpeg/core build we distribute — including the build scripts used to compile and install it — for no more than our cost of physically performing the distribution. Ask at legal@back.dev.

The upstream sources are also public: FFmpeg at git.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg.git, x264 at code.videolan.org/videolan/x264, x265 at bitbucket.org/multicoreware/x265_git, and the WebAssembly build scripts at github.com/ffmpegwasm/ffmpeg.wasm.

Backdrop's own code is not derived from FFmpeg. It runs the FFmpeg build as a separate program in a dedicated worker and passes it arguments, the same way a shell would.

Everything else

These are the third-party packages that ship in each product, with the licence each one carries. MIT, BSD, ISC and Apache-2.0 all ask that the copyright notice and licence text travel with the software — reproducing them here is us doing that. Read the full licence text for every package — each one reproduced verbatim, as its licence asks. The canonical texts of the longer licences are also here on their own: Apache-2.0, MPL-2.0, GPL-2.0.

Backburner — 12 packages

PackageVersionLicenceCopyright
@dnd-kit/accessibility3.1.1MITCopyright (c) 2021, Claudéric Demers
@dnd-kit/core6.3.1MITCopyright (c) 2021, Claudéric Demers
@dnd-kit/sortable8.0.0MITCopyright (c) 2021, Claudéric Demers
@dnd-kit/utilities3.2.2MITCopyright (c) 2021, Claudéric Demers
@neondatabase/serverless1.1.0MITCopyright (c) 2022 - 2025 Neon Inc.
drizzle-orm0.45.2Apache-2.0
js-tokens4.0.0MITCopyright (c) 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 Simon Lydell
loose-envify1.4.0MITCopyright (c) 2015 Andres Suarez <zertosh@gmail.com>
react18.3.1MITCopyright (c) Facebook, Inc. and its affiliates.
react-dom18.3.1MITCopyright (c) Facebook, Inc. and its affiliates.
scheduler0.23.2MITCopyright (c) Facebook, Inc. and its affiliates.
tslib2.8.10BSDCopyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.

Backpack — 15 packages

PackageVersionLicenceCopyright
@fastify/busboy2.1.1MITCopyright Brian White. All rights reserved.
@neondatabase/serverless1.1.0MITCopyright (c) 2022 - 2025 Neon Inc.
@vercel/blob1.1.1Apache-2.0copyright owner or entity authorized by
async-retry1.3.3MITCopyright (c) 2021 Vercel, Inc.
drizzle-orm0.45.2Apache-2.0
is-buffer2.0.5MITCopyright (c) Feross Aboukhadijeh
is-node-process1.2.0MIT
js-tokens4.0.0MITCopyright (c) 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 Simon Lydell
loose-envify1.4.0MITCopyright (c) 2015 Andres Suarez <zertosh@gmail.com>
react18.3.1MITCopyright (c) Facebook, Inc. and its affiliates.
react-dom18.3.1MITCopyright (c) Facebook, Inc. and its affiliates.
retry0.13.1MITCopyright (c) 2011:
scheduler0.23.2MITCopyright (c) Facebook, Inc. and its affiliates.
throttleit2.1.0MITCopyright (c) TJ Holowaychuk <tj@tjholowaychuk.com>
undici5.29.0MITCopyright (c) Matteo Collina and Undici contributors

Backdrop — 63 packages

PackageVersionLicenceCopyright
@ffmpeg/core0.12.10GPL-2.0-or-later
@ffmpeg/ffmpeg0.12.15MIT
@ffmpeg/types0.12.4MIT
@ffmpeg/util0.12.2MIT
@hocuspocus/common4.4.0MITCopyright (c) 2023, Tiptap GmbH
@hocuspocus/provider4.4.0MITCopyright (c) 2023, Tiptap GmbH
@hocuspocus/server4.4.0MITCopyright (c) 2023, Tiptap GmbH
@lifeomic/attempt3.1.0MITCopyright 2018 LifeOmic
@types/dom-mediacapture-transform0.1.12MITCopyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.
@types/dom-webcodecs0.1.13MITCopyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.
@vercel/blob2.6.1Apache-2.0copyright owner or entity authorized by
@vercel/cli-config0.2.1Apache-2.0copyright owner or entity authorized by
@vercel/cli-exec1.0.0Apache-2.0copyright owner or entity authorized by
@vercel/oidc3.8.1Apache-2.0copyright owner or entity authorized by
async-mutex0.5.0MITCopyright (c) 2016 Christian Speckner <cnspeckn@googlemail.com>
async-retry1.3.3MITCopyright (c) 2021 Vercel, Inc.
cross-spawn7.0.6MITCopyright (c) 2018 Made With MOXY Lda <hello@moxy.studio>
crossws0.4.10MITCopyright (c) Pooya Parsa <pooya@pi0.io>
execa5.1.1MITCopyright (c) Sindre Sorhus <sindresorhus@gmail.com> (https://sindresorhus.com)
fractional-indexing4.0.0CC0-1.0Copyright and Related Rights (defined below) upon the creator
get-stream6.0.1MITCopyright (c) Sindre Sorhus <sindresorhus@gmail.com> (https://sindresorhus.com)
human-signals2.1.0Apache-2.0copyright owner or entity authorized by
is-buffer2.0.5MITCopyright (c) Feross Aboukhadijeh
is-node-process1.2.0MIT
is-stream2.0.1MITCopyright (c) Sindre Sorhus <sindresorhus@gmail.com> (https://sindresorhus.com)
isexe2.0.0ISCCopyright (c) Isaac Z. Schlueter and Contributors
isomorphic.js0.2.5MITCopyright (c) 2020 Kevin Jahns <kevin.jahns@protonmail.com>.
jose5.10.0MITCopyright (c) 2018 Filip Skokan
kleur4.1.5MITCopyright (c) Luke Edwards <luke.edwards05@gmail.com> (lukeed.com)
lib00.2.117MITCopyright (c) 2019 Kevin Jahns <kevin.jahns@protonmail.com>.
mediabunny1.51.0MPL-2.0copyright doctrines of fair use, fair dealing, or other
merge-stream2.0.0MITCopyright (c) Stephen Sugden <me@stephensugden.com> (stephensugden.com)
mimic-fn2.1.0MITCopyright (c) Sindre Sorhus <sindresorhus@gmail.com> (sindresorhus.com)
npm-run-path4.0.1MITCopyright (c) Sindre Sorhus <sindresorhus@gmail.com> (sindresorhus.com)
onetime5.1.2MITCopyright (c) Sindre Sorhus <sindresorhus@gmail.com> (https://sindresorhus.com)
os-paths4.4.0MITCopyright (c) Roy Ivy III <rivy.dev@gmail.com>
path-key3.1.1MITCopyright (c) Sindre Sorhus <sindresorhus@gmail.com> (sindresorhus.com)
pg8.22.0MITCopyright (c) 2010 - 2021 Brian Carlson
pg-connection-string2.14.0MITCopyright (c) 2014 Iced Development
pg-int81.0.1ISCCopyright © 2017, Charmander <~@charmander.me>
pg-pool3.14.0MITCopyright (c) 2017 Brian M. Carlson
pg-protocol1.15.0MITCopyright (c) 2010 - 2021 Brian Carlson
pg-types2.2.0MIT
pgpass1.0.5MIT
postgres-array2.0.0MITCopyright (c) Ben Drucker <bvdrucker@gmail.com> (bendrucker.me)
postgres-bytea1.0.1MITCopyright (c) Ben Drucker <bvdrucker@gmail.com> (bendrucker.me)
postgres-date1.0.7MITCopyright (c) Ben Drucker <bvdrucker@gmail.com> (bendrucker.me)
postgres-interval1.2.0MITCopyright (c) Ben Drucker <bvdrucker@gmail.com> (bendrucker.me)
retry0.13.1MITCopyright (c) 2011:
shebang-command2.0.0MITCopyright (c) Kevin Mårtensson <kevinmartensson@gmail.com> (github.com/kevva)
shebang-regex3.0.0MITCopyright (c) Sindre Sorhus <sindresorhus@gmail.com> (sindresorhus.com)
signal-exit3.0.7ISCCopyright (c) 2015, Contributors
split24.2.0ISCCopyright (c) 2014-2018, Matteo Collina <hello@matteocollina.com>
strip-final-newline2.0.0MITCopyright (c) Sindre Sorhus <sindresorhus@gmail.com> (sindresorhus.com)
throttleit2.1.0MITCopyright (c) TJ Holowaychuk <tj@tjholowaychuk.com>
tslib2.8.10BSDCopyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.
undici6.28.0MITCopyright (c) Matteo Collina and Undici contributors
which2.0.2ISCCopyright (c) Isaac Z. Schlueter and Contributors
xdg-app-paths5.5.1MITCopyright (c) Roy Ivy III <rivy.dev@gmail.com>
xdg-portable7.3.0MITCopyright (c) Roy Ivy III <rivy.dev@gmail.com>
xtend4.0.2MITCopyright (c) 2012-2014 Raynos.
yjs13.6.31MITCopyright (c) 2023
zod4.1.11MITCopyright (c) 2025 Colin McDonnell

Fonts and other assets

Backdrop's caption renderer embeds DejaVu Sans, which is free to use and redistribute under the DejaVu licence and the underlying Bitstream Vera Fonts Copyright. Bitstream Vera is Copyright © 2003 Bitstream, Inc. DejaVu changes are Copyright © the DejaVu contributors. Full text at /licenses/third-party.txt.

Our own code

Backburner, Backpack, Backdrop and this site are not open source. That is not a statement about open source — we depend on it entirely — it is just where these products are today.