A Wave of DMCA Takedowns on Twitch

The twitch platform revealed that they have been preparing for another wave of the DMCA takedowns on the platform. In the past years, using copyrighted music on stream has become a pretty big issue specially on twitch platform with DMCA claims coming in against big and small streamers.

Because of this, this has led streamers to take down or delete all of their clips and VOD on their channel and even right after they finish streaming for the day just to avoid getting banned because of the DMCA. Now, Twitch has committed itself to being more transparent about DMCA as according to a certified esports consultant, Rod Breslau, Twitch sent out an email last night reporting that it received about 1,000 DMCA takedown notifications from music publishers, most of which likely stem from publishers using automated tools to scan for copyrighted music. Twitch noted that they believed these claims were being made by automated systems, which means further claims probably aren’t too far away, so if streamers have picked one strike, they might be in line for another.

Here’s what twitch stated; “We are actively speaking with music labels about solutions that could work for creators as well as right holders. This is our first such contact from the publishing industry (there can be several owners for a single piece of music), and we are disappointed they decided to send takedowns when we are willing and ready to speak to them about solutions.” As for avoiding strikes in the short term, Twitch noted that VODs with copyrighted music in should be removed, but they’re also working on “educating” creators on what they can and can’t use.