Twitch streamer Forsen was just hit with the third ban of his long career on the platform, but it remains unclear which rule he violated. With recent trends, most people predict it to be another DMCA regulation crackdown after the recent surge of bans that hit similarly high-profile streamers.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) is the set of laws that Twitch and other streaming platforms must abide by, most often pertaining to music played on stream. DMCA takedowns occur when a copyright holder believes a streamer is using their content without permission, and petitions Twitch to take it down. Takedowns have increased immensely in the last month, shaking the community as many high-profile streamers catch bans and warnings, often for years-old VODs containing copyrighted music.
While still unconfirmed, mass speculation points to popular Starcraft and Hearthstone player Forsen being the latest victim of the DMCA crackdown. Other big-name streamers including JakeNbake, LIRIK, and Pokimane have also been affected by the recent warnings and bans.
Sebastian “Forsen” Fors is among the most popular Twitch streamers in the world, with over 1.3 million followers. He’s also been on the platform for longer than most. This makes for his third Twitch ban, the last having occurred in September; while initially for unknown reasons, he stated that he believes Twitch mods misheard him saying a homophobic slur due to his Swedish accent.
Community uproar has lead to Twitch making a statement, both explaining the reasoning behind the recent wave as well as the steps forward. It promises “transparency going forward,” as well as more concrete tools to help streamers avoid DMCA takedowns– such as tools to detect copyrighted audio, mass delete copyrighted clips, as well as better education around the subject. “We were were as surprised by this sudden avalanche as many of you were,” says Twitch in the blog post, stating that the surge is a result of a new movement by major record labels to curb streamers from using uncopyrighted music.
Many in the community have expressed frustration over the response, particularly over having to comb through very old VODs to ensure that they won’t catch a ban for something they didn’t know was wrong at the time. The simple solution of “don’t play music on stream that you don’t own” that Twitch offers isn’t an easy one for most, so all signs point to an incoming legal battle as it doubles down on protecting the rights of music creators.
![\"IT電腦補習](\"http://itteacheritfreelance.hk/test/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/logo2-2.png\"){kind=logo}
www.itsec.hk
www.itsec.vip
www.itseceu.uk
Leave a Reply