Anyone who is a regular to streaming sites such as Twitch or Youtube have probably heard the news on recent DCMA Strikes, but what exactly even IS a DMCA Strike?

First, we need to discuss what DMCA means. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Basically, this is just a law that makes sure a musician’s music/sounds are safe and not being abused. Have you ever noticed that you never really hear popular music on someone’s stream? Well, you can thank DMCA for that.

Until now, DMCA has not been a major issue, and it was typically very easy to stay out of trouble. It was simple. Don’t play copyrighted music, and you don’t get banned. But, recently, DMCA strikes have been seeing a sharp incline, but why?

Recently streamers have been receiving strikes, suspensions, and even channel BANS as a result of playing music that normally wouldn’t fall under DMCA Laws. Most streamers have just adopted a policy of not playing music, but even then you’re not completely safe because of the possibility of Video Game Music being a trigger for it. Now, doesn’t that seem counterproductive? Especially since Twitch is a GAME streaming platform.

Until today, Twitch has been silent on the matter, but, as of 14 hours ago (1 pm; December 17th, 2020), Twitch hosted a virtual town hall to discuss problems. Twitch came to the decision to publicly apologize for the situation and their response to it, or lack thereof. Twitch also announced they were going to try to license with certain music studios to ensure that streamers could play certain music and be safe from a DMCA strike.

Not going to lie- this solution seems pretty Poggers.