

Twitch is deleting content that has copyrighted material within it on their channel.In an attempt to protect themselves (and to a lesser degree, the creator), Twitch emailed creators this past week informing them the following: While the blame does rest at the feet of those using music without proper authorization, creators are still angry with Twitch’s response to the DMCA wave. The creator is now vulnerable to these DMCA strikes and Twitch only gives you two strikes on this before your account is permanently terminated. Therefore, the responsibility rests solely on the creator not to use copyrighted music within their streams. Twitch will not take responsibility for allowing DMCA violations on channels because it would be held liable and potentially be put out of business. Twitch is in an awkward spot because it wants to protect its userbase, but they also needs to protect themselves. I don’t believe it- G1 Gigz October 20, 2020

I literally NEVER play music on my stream and got a DMCA strike warning. Welp finally happened boys, got hit with a dmca strike, back to boring music on stream- Sizz October 20, 2020 This thought ran true for a while, until labels began to send waves of DMCA claims out to popular creators on the platform. Large streamers had the connections to get the claims lifted, so the risk of using popular songs was worth it for the quality of the stream. Streamers used the justification that large streamers are doing it, so they are fine. Up until this year, DMCA claims were very rare on livestreams. The issue is that many creators have just disregarded this point. It is a violation of our policies to stream or upload content containing copyrighted music unless you have the appropriate rights or authority to share such music on Twitch.” “We ask that creators only share content for which they have the necessary rights. Most creators on Twitch know that using copyrighted music is against Twitch’s terms. However, Twitch streamers are quickly learning that this same protection is also putting their livelihoods at risk when they use uncleared music. This might sound great as a creator, knowing that your content is safe. The main use of DMCA is to go after people who circumvent those requirements and hold them accountable. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a copyright law that protects artists from having their content used without permission or clearance. It’s very reminiscent of the same DMCA waves that hit Twitch only a couple of months ago. In what seems like a déjà vu moment, Twitch streamers of all sizes were once again hit with a wave of DMCA warnings and strikes on their channels this week.
