The music industry targets streamers. Anyone who plays copyrighted music in videos must fear for their account.
Last week, Twitch sent an email to streamers using the website’s services. In it, the company stated that it had received around 1,000 different lawsuits from music publishers alleging copyright infringement in videos. Most affected are streams that can still be viewed as video (as so-called VODs) on the platform after going live.
“All of the lawsuits related to videos in which the streamers played music in the background while they were streaming, the copyrights of which are owned by certain music publishers,” Twitch told “The Verge“. The company assumes that the lawsuits were triggered automatically and warns its users that even more such lawsuits can be expected.
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Advice on deletion
This is worrying news for streamers because last year there was already a wave of similar lawsuits affecting many users. The problem with this: After three reminders about copyright infringements, users are permanently blocked from the Twitch streaming platform.
The only way to avoid a copyright infringement lawsuit is to not play copyrighted music while streaming, according to Twitch. The company also urgently advises its users to delete any video material in which such music can be heard.
Problem last year
The copyright dispute led to resentment in the Twitch community last year. It started with a large number of streamers being showered with lawsuits against videos in which copyrighted music could be heard, first in May 2020 and then again in October.
Twitch responded by deleting affected content but apologized for this step in November. There were many more copyright lawsuits than normal this year. The company then promised to make new tools available to help streamers better manage their content.
