Twitch has been sending out a lot of emails alleging copyright infringement recently, leading to streamers frantically trying to figure out how to delete potentially thousands of clips and countless hours of work and memorable moments.
Clips from 2017-2019 have been targeted specifically, but due to Twitch’s lax enforcement of its own music guidelines, some streamers have racked up a huge library of videos that contain copyrighted music and deleting it isn’t a straightforward process.
Fusilie received two copyright strikes on June 7, and a third would have netted her a permaban. With over 100,000 clips, finding and deleting other clips with copyrighted music sounds like an impossible task, and Twitch advised her to just delete her entire library. Unfortunately, that’s just as big a challenge, as she can’t even see her old clips.
I’ve been issued 2 copyright strikes on my channel (both from clips over a year old) in the past week and told that if they find one more violation in my clips, my twitch account will be permabanned. (1/4) pic.twitter.com/y8pft3spdqJune 7, 2020
This isn’t an isolated case. Even though streamers are trying to protect themselves by proactively deleting clips, Twitch is throwing obstacles in their way. Twitch has said that it’s working to make the process of deleting clip archives easier, but it’s not provided an alternative yet.
📢 This week, we’ve had a sudden influx of DMCA takedown requests for clips with background music from 2017-19. If you’re unsure about rights to audio in past streams, we advise removing those clips. We know many of you have large archives, and we’re working to make this easier.June 8, 2020
While it’s working on it, streamers are being threatened with bans and suspensions, so this doesn’t seem like something people can really wait on. A better process should have already been in place before something like this happened.
Twitch is legally obligated to act on copyright claims, but some streamers have been critical over how it’s handling it. Previously, Twitch muted audio that was flagged by its content filtering system, protecting both the music’s copyright and the streamer, but now it’s removing clips and doling out strikes.
Not fucking happy with Twitch right now. Fuck the way that they are handling this whole copyright music situation. Just giving people strikes/bans left and right from clips from years ago.All these memories, saved clips and commands, etc. just gotta be panic-deleted to be safe.June 8, 2020
Twitch advises streamers to refer to the music guidelines, though much of what is prohibited occurs regularly and goes largely ignored. It doesn’t address games that use licensed music, either. Alinity got a DMCA notice for a 2017 clip that she believes came from Just Dance, a game that’s full of licensed music and frequently streamed.
Yeah, I got a DMCA too. I tried to see what the clip was since it was almost certainly from playing Just Dance, this song is in the game. But it seems the clip was already gone when I tried to see 😖 pls @TwitchSupport pic.twitter.com/TMSWHUlR57June 7, 2020
Licenses also change. Games don’t always get permanent rights to music, leading to updates removing songs or games even being removed from sale. So even if streamers are free to play something like GTA 5, what’s protecting them if Rockstar loses the rights to a track that features in one of their clips?
It’s not clear what prompted this glut of copyright claims, but if this is something that’s going to happen more frequently, Twitch is going to have to start clarifying a few things in its guidelines.