Twitch Sued For $3 Billion And May Be Blocked In Russia
Russian media company Rambler Group is suing Twitch for copyright infringement and may have found a way to get Twitch banned in Russia.
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It is no secret that by this point, Twitch is a platform full of controversies and questionable decisions. Whether it’s top streamers leaving Twitch for other platforms such as Mixer or Facebook, or people getting banned for drawing other streamers’ peculiar live-stream incidents, Twitch is a platform that almost everyone knows too well by now.
The latest controversy to affect Twitch revolves around Russian media company Rambler Group, who has filed a lawsuit against Twitch for nearly $3 billion. According to the company, Twitch is in violation of exclusive distribution rights of English Premier League games. In other words, Twitch users are re-streaming the English Premier League games over on Twitch, thus allowing other people to watch the games for free – essentially pirating them. That is in direct violation of Twitch’s Community Guidelines that states how users aren’t allowed to share content without permission from copyright owners.
Initially, Rambler Group bought digital distribution rights of the English Premier League in 2019 for three seasons for about $7.8 million. Since Rambler Group is Russian-owned, that means Russian fans wishing to view the games would need to go through a Rambler-owned streaming platform. However, since some of the fans were re-streaming the games on Twitch, their actions led to copyright infringement claims and ultimately the lawsuit.
Rambler Group has provided screenshots and images of 36,000 people tuning in to watch the games, although Twitch claims that the screenshots do not have any dates on them and that Rambler Group did not send any official notifications prior to the lawsuit. According to Twitch, the streaming platform did attempt to remove a number of channels that were in direct violation, and the people behind the channels were permanently banned. However, Rambler Group is seeking compensation for the damage that was already dealt, and even to go as far as to ban Twitch in Russia.
Currently, both sides are trying to reach a potential settlement agreement, with the Moscow City Court to hear the case on December 20. Additionally, Rambler Group has ordered a suspension of all English Premier League streams on Twitch pending the outcome. If the lawsuit is to happen after all, and if Rambler Group does end up winning, Twitch may face rather serious consequences.
Source: BBC
Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/twitch-lawsuit-rambler-group-3-billion-russia-english-premiere-league/