Quote:Over the weekend, many streamers discovered an unpleasant surprise in their inboxes: an email from Twitch saying they’d received one or more copyright strikes on clips from their streams. If streamers receive three strikes, they risk an indefinite ban. The problem? The offending clips were not recent, but streamers hadn’t received any previous indication that there were ticking time bombs in their archives.

After numerous streamers reported late last week and over the weekend that their clips had received the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) treatment thanks to copyright claims from an entity claiming to represent the Recording Industry Association of America, Twitch clarified what happened in a post on Twitter.

“This week, we’ve had a sudden influx of DMCA takedown requests for clips with background music from 2017-19,” the company wrote. “This is the first time we have received mass DMCA claims against clips. We understand this has been stressful for affected creators and are working on solutions, including examining how we can give you more control over your clips.”

DMCA claims exist in part to protect big companies and platforms from being held directly liable when individuals break copyright rules. This means, on one hand, that users can post what they want, rather than platforms having to put a blanket ban on all sorts of content that could be illegal, but it also forces companies to remove offending content as soon as its claimed, for fear of legal reprisal, and saddle repeat offenders with sterner consequences.

(06-09-2020, 08:35 AM)mothered Wrote: This was bound to happen sooner or later.

I'm actually surprised they didn't take action earlier.

(06-09-2020, 11:06 AM)Oni Wrote:

(06-09-2020, 08:35 AM)mothered Wrote: This was bound to happen sooner or later.

I'm actually surprised they didn't take action earlier.

I agree. Musicians want their piece of the pie, no matter how you look at it.