Twitch revealed that it has received new takedown requests from music producers under violations of copyrighted music used by streamers on Video On Demand (VOD) content or previously recorded live streams.
The announcement was made through an email notice that was shared to multiple streamers warning them that their content would soon be taken down for copyright concerns. The email included tips on how to safeguard your channel from copyright claims and revealed that most of the takedown requests were copyrighted background music played during streams.
Twitch also mentioned that although the copyrighted content could soon be taken down, Twitch has tried to communicate with the music labels to reach an optimal solution:
“Based on the number of claims, we believe these rights holders used automated tools to scan and identify copyrighted music in creators’ VODs and Clips, which means that they will likely send further notices. We are actively speaking with music labels about solutions that could work for creators as well as rights holders. This is our first such contact from the music 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”
In a statement to the Engadget, a Twitch spokesperson revealed that the copyright claims comprise of approximately 1000 individuals:
“We recently received a batch of DMCA takedown notifications with about 1,000 individual claims from music publishers. All of the claims are against VODs, and the vast majority of claims target streamers listening to background music while playing video games or IRL streaming. We want to ensure our creator community is aware that the only way to protect themselves from DMCA notifications is to not stream music — or other copyrighted material — they do not have rights to.”
The list of copyright claims include videos that have already lapsed the time to be available for streamers and public users. It is to be noted that Twitch does not allow past live streams on its platform after 60 days for Twitch Partners, Prime and Twitch Turbo, and 14 days for other streamers.
Twitch streamer with around 300,000 followers, Sneegsnag, shared that he received a DMCA takedown notice for a video from 2019, which is neither accessible to him nor the public due to which he is unable to takedown the video:
Just got a DMCA strike on a vod over Boulevard of Broken dreams playing on a video from March 2019 that nobody except grubby music corporations can access. If they can go in and see it I should be able to as well this system is abysmal @Twitch @TwitchSupport
— Sneepsnuck (@Sneegsnag) May 28, 2021
The takedowns could potentially result in Twitch bans for streamers that have already violated the copyright guidelines twice. A DMCA takedown can also lead to a 30-day suspension from Twitch. However, the advance notice from Twitch can help streamers remove the VODs prior to the takedowns coming into effect.