Important: I just speak about how to use existing mechanics - I don't discuss the actual mutes behaviour. 90% of my material "survives" and so I'm fine with it.

Twitch could identify songs, mute and the more tell the dj (appeal function) which material is muted and also could separate muted from unmuted material.

1st tool / "precheck": It should be easy to create a tool for dj's to upload playlists and get a ok/not ok feedback from tool.

2st tool / "ok list": Twitch could identify the unmuted music played every day by dj's and pass out an index/list with all unmuted music + a search function for.

I know that there will be a tolerance for fails and errors as we know, but will give back personal freedom to DJ's.

With the issue of DMCA being a bigger issue now than it was years ago, content creators on Twitch are getting more up in arms about how Twitch is handling the entire situation. There are several ways that Twitch could have handled the massive batch DMCA claims they have gotten, but there is no way of going back and fixing that now, so here are some steps Twitch can currently implement to better handle incoming and currently outstanding DMCA claims.

When a DMCA claim is made, the content creator should get an email with which highlight, VoD, or clip was claimed. There should also be a sort option in the video producer each Twitch streamer has access to that allows the streamer to view which of their videos have a copyright claim on it. This would make it easier for the streamer to know which videos to look at for the copyrighted material in question rather than having to cross-reference with an email.

Within the highlight editor itself, there should be an option for the editor to mute the VoD on their own accord rather than wait for a bot to do it or get a copyright claim from a copyright holder. There should also be an option to go in and edit currently existing highlights or clips with an option to mute a selection of audio as well. There currently is not a way for editors to trim or edit a highlight or clip.

As far as handling DMCA claims, there should be a weeklong grace period after the claim is made for a streamer to make a dispute on the copyright claim, delete the video in question entirely, or mute the audio in question themselves. As it seems at the moment, there is no grace period, so if a streamer is hit with enough DMCA claims all at once, their account is immediately suspended, not allowing them a chance to even delete the videos in question.

When it comes to live content, there appears to be no clear direction of what to do here aside from informing streamers about games that are especially risky to stream when it comes to music that is licensed for the purpose of the game itself but not for live streams on top of providing options for music license that streamers can use for streams and the continued curation of the Twitch Soundtrack tool. Maybe sometime in the future, there will be a more definitive answer on how to handle DMCA claims on live content.

I would like to get all of the streaming platforms, some big name streamers from each, some partners, some affiliates, and some just starting to stream, and then get them together with Record Labels, some of their artists who are both for and against us using their songs in online streaming, and a panel of congress men and women to sit down discuss the Copyright and DMCA Laws, and then work together to Change it to benefit everyone.

It's time we sit down and discuss this matter to ensure that things like playing music on a video game stream, is covered under the DMCA for folks who either Own the actual Record, Tap, CD, or MP3 format of the music and are playing it from their PC, or even those who pay a subscription fee to a music streaming service. Or, at the very least (and yes i did see this in the list already) have us as streamers who want to play music have the option to pay you for a licensing subscription fee so that we can play whatever we want and not get hit with DMCA Strikes. However, we want you to set it at a fair price, let's say $5.00 a month. This is to ensure that the music industry gets their cut, but if they (The Record Labels) decide to get greedy you push back and let them this is non-negotiable and that you will not be bullied like they did with MTV.

Currently, it is hopelessly impractical for streamers to do what they do best, entertain with back ground music filling the silence between moments when they game or interact, while the danger of blanket copyright strikes resulting in forced stream and VOD censoring exists. If twitch wants this to work effectively, they have to fight for it. This could mean hiring legal experts, and/or lobbyists to work to implement something similar to the Fair Use Act under US law in the long term, but in the mean time I've prepared a suggestion or two that should help the situation if implemented.

Currently, the way the copyright issue works prevents any use whatsoever of music or content whose copyright is owned by someone else, and its use is often contested by automation, not by direct interaction, this is inadequate for protecting livestreamers, as it often results in mass automated over-reactions of the algorithms which twitch and copyright owners rely on to police the use of their content, as these algorithms are not fully capable of analyzing the contextual elements of each individual instance of alleged copyright infringement, simply put, the algorithms not smart enough, and it never can be, because its not a person.

Here is how you solve this problem. The automated system of copyright claiming must be removed and replaced with good old fashioned manpower, forcing copyright owners to MANUALLY issue copyright complaints which must be MANUALLY reviewed by twitch staff/moderators, in order to do away with algorithm censoring. This would mean hiring/tasking staff who can objectively and contextually review streamer content on a ticket by ticket basis to determine whether or not the copyrighted content is being used by the streamer in a manner, that fits the exact legal terminology of copyright law.

An expedient and effective means of contesting copyright claims must also be implemented for streamers to make use of. While copyright owners may lose money in the meantime, assuming their claims of infringement are well founded, streamers and smaller content creators often cannot afford the required downtime needed to contest or appeal a claim of this nature through the currently available methods.

Twitch is a service provider, as such, twitch should be the first one to go to bat for people making use of their service, it shouldn't be censoring their content first and asking questions of context later, this may be more expedient on twitch's end, but it can be the difference between success and failure in the streaming world on a content creator's end. Put simply, twitch has resources, most streamers don't, so don't pass the buck, step up, and do the work, so streamers can keep making you money.

This particular issue is not something that can be automated, not in the complaint filing, or processing aspects, without severely hampering streamers ability to create content. To fix this problem, you must put butts in the seats, and do the work the hard way. It will be thankless, and god awfully difficult, but your community will love you for it.

I appreciate that copyright exists and I as a creator need to respect those rules however I believe music is an integral part of my streams and my current growth on twitch. I have no problem removing and replacing some songs in my playlist however there has been a tremendous amount of inconsistency when it comes to what parts of my streams are being muted.

I would love a way of knowing which songs and why are getting copyrighted so I have a chance to learn from the problems and not just be told I'm doing something wrong.

I appreciate everything the twitch community has said and done for the past little while about these situations, but I would appreciate a little more transparency considering we're all people.

Just help me out and let me know how I can keep growing in a DMCA friendly environment and not be cut out of the loop of creators.

Thanks Twitch team!

I was wondering if the policy of parody lyrics could be clarified. Most of your policy says as long as a good attempt is made to match the lyrics.

However some comedy channels might want to use parody lyrics improvising a parody acapella on the spot.

we're not using a recording of the song but we are singing in the cadence and notage of the copyrighted song but we're singing alternate lyrics.

Like for example I noted that the Billy Ocean song Love Zone happened to come out at the same time that we discovered The warp zone in Super Mario Bros that naturally led to the 4 lines of a parody. If there was social media back in that time that would have been funny.

I'm not a professional YouTuber but I got a dmca notice for friends wedding playing I will always love you at the actual wedding.

I think the owners of that song got so many requests to do that and so many backlash against it that they decided to do ads for songs were they placed an ad on the video that's clickable in return for letting the video played the song.

I was considering giving everyone a 5 second theme song to my regular listeners. Since the music is copyrighted I've since held back. maybe ads for songs would be a good universal default program for short usage where the music is not the main attraction to the show.