Big Changes For DMCA Ban

Twitch is making significant changes to how it notifies streamers about DMCA warnings in order to help them avoid being banned.

For a long time, Twitch streamers have been plagued by DMCA difficulties, with some even reluctant to broadcast IRL visits to the store for fear of copyrighted music playing in the background. While there is still some ambiguity regarding what is and isn’t authorized, particularly in the TV show meta, Twitch is taking steps to make it easier for streamers to identify when they’ve been hit with a copyright issue. 

The Amazon-owned platform revealed how it will change its warnings in the future in emails addressed to streamers. In order to reduce copyright strikes, Twitch’s system now mutes VODs and deletes linked clips on the channel when it identifies copyrighted audio in VODs or clips. It would not, however, provide information about the copyrighted material. Users will receive a notification and an email outlining what was copyrighted and a link to the VOD in the future if there are several instances of infringing audio.

Twitch explained; “Furthermore, we will update your stream settings to unpublish your VODs by default moving forward. Your unpublished VODs can be reviewed and either published or downloaded from the Video Producer page of your Creator Dashboard.”

Streamers will have the option to turn back on VOD settings and eliminate copyright audio warnings, but Twitch advises against it. It will be interesting to see whether these adjustments result in fewer platform suspensions or if the warnings are simply ignored.