Twitch Reaches Agreement With Music Publishers Over DMCA Practices
Twitch will now issue warnings instead of immediately issuing penalties.
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Twitch and the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) have reached an agreement. That agreement doesn’t change the fundamental rules regarding copyrighted music and streaming, so Twitch streamers are still going to have to avoid streaming copyrighted songs–they just won’t immediately run afoul of the law if they do it accidentally.
Last summer, music publishers began flooding Twitch with DMCA takedown requests. Many of them had to do with copyrighted music being played during a stream, which was against the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s rules regarding rebroadcasting. Streamers that ran afoul of this rule found their VODs taken down, with some even receiving temporary or even permanent bans.
This thorny issue led to some creative solutions. The most popular one was the inclusion of “streamer mode” in new games–basically, a mode that either replaced copyrighted music with non-copyrighted tunes or just muted the music altogether. A somewhat more complicated solution was SpotifySynchronizer, a plugin that paired with a user’s Spotify account to stream the game’s songs at the same time as the streamer plays games.
Neither solution was particularly satisfying, and neither is the new deal with the NMPA. Rather than issuing immediate penalties and takedowns, Twitch’s agreement allows for a “more flexible and forgiving” process for streamers that “inadvertently or incidentally” play copyrighted music.
Before, all instances of DMCA violations resulted in instant punishment. Now, when Twitch receives a DMCA request from a copyright holder, they’ll review the request and–if found valid–pass a warning to first-time offenders.
Those with a history of violating the rules or flagrant violations (such as rebroadcasting a concert live on-stream) will result in the usual punishments, with VODs and clips removed along with possible bans.
“We recognize that not all unauthorized uses of music merit the same treatment,” a spokesperson for the streaming platform said, “and it is our hope that we can, as part of our agreements with music rights holders, take a balanced approach that supports creators on Twitch.”
This compromise is almost certain to draw ire from content creators, but it’s at least a first sign that Twitch is willing to advocate for its streamers.
Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/twitch-agreement-dmca-practices/