Another ban wave spurred on by DMCA claims could be starting on Twitch very soon. On Twitter, esports analyst and consultant Rod “Slasher” Breslau shared an email from Twitch. According to the email, the Amazon-owned streaming service has received a massive 1,000 DMCA claims from music labels. Specifically, the claims are “for VODs, and the vast majority target streamers listening to background music while playing video games or IRL streaming.”
Of course, it’s not easy to file 1,000 DMCA claims, and Twitch believes that some music labels “used automated tools to scan and identify copyrighted music in creators’ VODs and Clips.” If that is the case, it doesn’t bode well for streamers on the platform. With a tool that sweeps through the VODs and Clips of content creators, a song that briefly plays in a piece of content from years ago can lead to a DMCA strike. This was the case for content creator Sneepsnuck, who claims to have received a DMCA strike on a VOD from 2019 because Green Day’s Boulevard of Broken Dreams was playing.