Twitch streamers are no strangers to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act or DMCA takedowns after a year full of controversies surrounding the same. The biggest Twitch streamer Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins believes that the regulations are framed in a way that holds no value for the content creators.
DMCA strikes are not random, they are issues in exchange for any infringing music played on live stream/videos with permission from the record label that controls its distribution. The music does not necessarily have to be part of your active content, for example, if someone is playing loud music in the background, Twitch is within its rights to issues a strike even if it’s a second of the track that made it to the streaming audio.
<iframe src="https://clips.twitch.tv/embed?clip=HungryGeniusSoybeanFloof&parent=www.example.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" scrolling="no" height="378" width="620"></iframe>“Having the rights to be able to stream video games … gaming companies understand and they realize the value that streamers and content creators bring. And they don’t try to monetize off of it. And that’s the difference between the music and the gaming industry.” said Ninja while answering an avid fan.
As Ninja suggests, gaming and the music industry holds different outlook towards content creators. When streamers play a game, it remains beneficial towards them and the developer as the latter gets free publicity. The music industry has an opposing outlook towards the same, they are unwilling to give up any chance at monetization despite the free publicity that the streamers are providing.
Ninja is not the only one who protested against the DMCA regulations, 2020 in its entirety had enough controversies to force the authorities to restructure the DMCA. Some artists in the music industry have realized it and released dedicated music/instrumentals for streamers to play during live streams.
