During the streaming platform’s first live Town Hall, Twitch says it is sorry for the way it has managed problems regarding DMCA takedowns and pledges to look for legal solutions that will alleviate some of their most concerning problems. Twitch had a hard time properly communicating with its users about the ongoing DMCA problems, but today was another step in the correct direction for the platform.
The DMCA problems on Twitch emerged back in October of this year when multiple streamers on the site were warned that their content had been deleted without any prior warning because of audio that breaches the guidelines of the platform.
This was then pursued by various waves of DMCA strikes that ended in the banning of some of Twitch’s most popular streamers. Twitch offered little assistance, stating streamers should delete all of their old clips and videos, stop streaming music and mute in-game audio that could end in DMCA strikes. As users strived to stay relevant in an ocean of DMCA anarchy, some tried to adhere to the oppressive new rules and others criticized them.
Today, Twitch finally owned to its mistakes during the fires-ever Town Hall which comprised of three parts of updates regarding some of the platform’s considerable concerns as well as a 30-minute Q&A with selected questions from its viewers.
During the Q&A, this question was thrown: “Who gave the ‘okay’ to tweet to the majority of the userbase that muting the in-game audio was the best way to protect from DMCA, and how could something so tone-deaf make its way down the pipeline?”
Sara Clemens, Twitch’s COO, answered the question by apologizing on behalf of the team revealing that Twitch had “missed the mark” and that the questioner was correct in saying that it was a “tone-deaf” decision that should not have occurred.
In addition to the apology, Jeremy Forrester, the Head of Creator Products for Twitch, mentioned that the platform is currently discussing with various major recording companies for a possible site-wide licensing.
This would allow the streaming platform to pay a license fee to a recording company to guarantee that the content consisting of that company’s audio would be flagged for DMCA takedown. However, Forrester revealed that this would be a very costly solution and Twitch is different from any other platform for which a license does not exist.
Twitch is working out with these recording companies in hopes to reach a deal that works for both companies. Forrester was also honest in revealing that if this does not come to completion, it might take a long time to process if it does at all.
