The Invisible Streaming Agreement (DMCA Take downs):Twitch’s Current State

The year 2020 has been a challenging one for everyone involved, but if you are a Twitch streamer, Twitch just made your life a little more difficult. In recent months, Twitch has been notifying its content creators (again) on the potential issues surrounding copyrighted material on the platform. I am using the word “notifying” very loosely. The time frame of emails sent out to creators is sporadic and unknown. Some streamers were given warnings, and some may not have had the luxury of a warning as they were just immediately banned without knowledge of why. What makes this situation so jarring is that Twitch itself has offered no real solution to the problem of how copyrighted material should be used more appropriately. And from their most recent statement, things do not seem too hopeful for some content creators.

So what can Twitch streamers do? Well, the safest, but most unconscionable to streamers and the twitch audience, is to mute all potentially copyrighted music and sound effects. I kind of understand this rule when it applies to streamers wanting to play third-party music in the background, but I cannot get behind the stringent rules on in-game music being restricted when the music is built into the DNA of every game. But I get it, this is above feelings and goes back to laws enacted back in the 1980s to protect musicians and their artistry. So it’s clear that streamers should just listen to Twitch and delete the clips and VODs that violate the DMCA’s rules and everything will be solved. Well, it seems like that may not be a concrete solution. Some streamers have indicated that even when copyrighted material is deleted from their channel, this has not stopped some from still receiving warnings and even strikes on their channels.

Is there a solution to this barrage of DMCA claims? Yes, but does it makes sense? Twitch is one of the world’s biggest live-streaming platforms and they pride themselves on the aspect of live interactions between streamers and viewers. The problem streamers face is afterward when they have finished live streaming and that content is saved as a long-form video. DMCA claims are usually issued through the RIAA, which has a procedure that allows them to check on streams that are no longer live and review the saved VODS to see if the stream has violated their material. The RIAA will then send a claim to Twitch – who then contacts streamers on the severity of the claim. This is where it becomes difficult for both Twitch and streamers. Twitch is facing a dilemma where they are trying to keep healthy relationships with any potential future business partners, but they also do not want to take any responsibility for any copyrighted violations that any of the streamers on their platform may break. Twitch, unfortunately, has no interest in saved streams and clips – hence why they have been apprehensive in creating a music licensing agreement with any music/trade organizations.

When it came to gaming and entertainment, I always saw streamers being able to play video games for a living as having an invisible contract with video game studios – an invisible streaming agreement – if you will. It has always been a thing for years where streamers would play games and other copyrighted material on stream, under fair use, not to intentionally steal from video game creators, but to openly share an experience with their community. But it has come to the attention of many music copyright organizations, mainly RIAA, that Twitch is an even bigger platform than it was 10 years ago and that they capitalize off of their bigger consumer base. From a purely business standpoint, these companies feel like they need to make it clear that some financial agreement has to be made with Twitch to use their musical material or they will continue to harass streamers over 10-second music bits. The entire thing just seems a little tyrannical to me.

The DMCA law is an essential law with provisions that still hold an immensely important function in our society today. Unfortunately, when the law was passed in October of 1988, before the invention of the internet and live-streaming, function and viability have to be taken into consideration before enforcement can come into play in modern-day situations. How can music and live streaming have a more coherent and beneficial relationship? To attack Twitch or the RIAA is just simply not a solution. It’s even worse because that would just be unproductive. To overcome this, a lot more communication needs to take place at Twitch between higher-ups and the content creators that keep the site alive. What does the future look like between live-streamers and a website that fails to put their needs first? As much as people love to disregard the gaming and live streaming community, these platforms have their own important ecosystems that give access to many people who may or may not have time or money to consume every gaming product. It is that free exposure for that unknown video game or a live streamer bringing attention to a particular product that can elevate the popularity and longevity of that product. The relationship between content creators and the creators of the products they consume has always been pretty unique, but dynamic.