This week, many of my fellow Twitch Streamers have been hit with DMCA take-down orders as it relates to clips containing licensed music, and from my point of view, it's just the latest in a series of on-going legal wrangling from the Music Industry to 'protect the recording artists and record labels'. Is it their right to make such demands, why yes, yes it is, they own the copyright on the music... and from my point of view as a Twitch Streamer, I often look at those channels that do nothing but act like glorified radio stations or night club DJ's, playing nothing but licensed music as being a novelty act that was just asking for trouble... and they are probably the ones being hit the hardest by this.
From my point of view, this is nothing new, as some may know I did have a YouTube Channel that was called Fred Casden's Basement, where I did full on reviews that featured content in the realm of Fair Use, such as using screen captures of shows or scans of comic books I was discussing, among other things to try and spice up my content. When my channel grew to where it could be monetized to get some income on my work, that's when I started to have a few issues, such as CBS taking ownership of a review I did for their awful MacGyver reboot because I used a few screen shots from that weeks episode to make my point, and when I started to port Twitch broadcasts to that channel, I noticed that the Warner Music Group was really protective over certain songs that appeared in Saints Row The Third and Saints Row IV. Now in the case of the issues with CBS, since I was doing a review I could of challenged it based on 'Fair Use' because I was making a critical point, but the issue with WMG was a little more complicated.
The music industry, in my lifetime at least, has been really anal about protecting itself against piracy thanks to the events surrounding Napster, and the combinations of the recording artists and the record labels have been doing everything they can to keep as much control over their songs as possible. While the Film and Video Game industry has certainly moved with the times, the former more reluctantly than the later, the Music industry has only taking the smallest of steps forward to expanding use of licensed music, begrudgingly loosing how it appears on streamers channels on YouTube, Mixer, and Twitch if its in the context of a video game... it's why most people tend to turn off in-game music for things like the Grand Theft Auto series because it's such a headache.
As the copyright holders, any record label, for example the Warner Music Group, can demand something be removed, and Twitch has the platform in question here, much like YouTube has to comply with that request. In fact any video game publisher can do the same, however that's not exactly smart business considering the amount of virtually free advertising they get from people who stream video games. Some may argue that Twitch should look out for its streamers, however YouTube already set the president on just being the service provider when it came to such issues back, so Twitch is just following the path laid out.
The music industry, in my lifetime at least, has been really anal about protecting itself against piracy thanks to the events surrounding Napster, and the combinations of the recording artists and the record labels have been doing everything they can to keep as much control over their songs as possible. While the Film and Video Game industry has certainly moved with the times, the former more reluctantly than the later, the Music industry has only taking the smallest of steps forward to expanding use of licensed music, begrudgingly loosing how it appears on streamers channels on YouTube, Mixer, and Twitch if its in the context of a video game... it's why most people tend to turn off in-game music for things like the Grand Theft Auto series because it's such a headache.
As the copyright holders, any record label, for example the Warner Music Group, can demand something be removed, and Twitch has the platform in question here, much like YouTube has to comply with that request. In fact any video game publisher can do the same, however that's not exactly smart business considering the amount of virtually free advertising they get from people who stream video games. Some may argue that Twitch should look out for its streamers, however YouTube already set the president on just being the service provider when it came to such issues back, so Twitch is just following the path laid out.
I don't blame the hire ups at Twitch, they are a business and they are providing a service for people to use. Could they have handled it better, probably, but at the same time, the music industry for the most part is just like Donal Trump, it makes threats that could be bad for everyone if it doesn't get its way. So the question is what do people do if they aren't gamers and want to play music on their channels... well one, if you are musician, create your own content, don't do covers or perform licensed songs, do your own thing. If you're wanna-be DJ, well mix your own beats, create your own tracks that aren't licensed to a record lable. If you are gamer, don't have Spotify, iTunes or Amazon music playing tracks as you stream. The issue of in-game music is still a thing, but if its a game with a ton of license music like a Saints Row or a Grand Theft Auto, probably best not to use the in-game tunes, you might want to either lower the volume to where can barely be heard or just turn the in-game music off.
Of course that's just my opinion.
Of course that's just my opinion.
