Published , by Chris Jarrard
Published , by Chris Jarrard
The world has been making use of the power of the internet for the better part of thirty years now. In all that time, the rules and procedures around things such as copyrighted music use remain muddied and user-unfriendly at the best of times. Twitch, the world’s biggest video game streaming service, has announced some changes to how it will handle copyright claims against its streamers, citing a new agreement with the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA).
In a statement directly to Shacknews, Twitch explained today’s changes. “We’re excited to announce that we’ve entered into an agreement with the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) to build productive partnerships between Twitch and music publishers. As part of this agreement, we want to let you know about a new process that we are creating that participating music rights holders can opt into to report certain uses of their music, which is more flexible and forgiving to creators who inadvertently or incidentally use music in their streams than the existing process required under the DMCA and similar global laws.”
The statement goes on to outline the changes to how copyright infringement reporting will be handled moving forward. Twitch says that it will have a team that will review reports and check for compliance, similar to how the existing DMCA procedure has been in use previously. Unlike the DMCA process, Twitch’s new procedure will offer content creators a warning rather than automated removal of the alleged offending content. The company will also factor in the specific user’s history of music use (or possibly copyright abuse) when making takedown decisions.
Twitch was quick to mention that today’s announcement does not bring any changes to existing rules on how music can be used during livestreams and VOD content, only for the procedures surrounding copyright claims.