When appealing muted music on a VOD, add an option for "Claimant Is Not Actually the Copyright Holder"
I recently had a GB Tetris stream get muted because the copyright bot's song IDing listed "Ikon Ringtones" as the owner of the song.
I can say with full confidence that "Ikon Ringtones" does NOT own Hirokazu Tanaka's 8-bit rendition of a Russian folk song. And that's been the problem for years - bad actors clowning around with copyright claims for video game music they don't own. Not only do establishments like "Ikon Ringtones" get away with it for using video game music as ringtone options, insignificant nobody DJs have also been known to do it when they sample music from a video game and then streamers get muted for nothing more than playing a video game.
It's high time Twitch allows us to appeal muted streams based on the supposed claimant clearly not owning the rights to the music, and puts more manual effort into identifying these bad actors and disqualifying them from further copyright claims without definitive proof that they are the owner of the copyrighted work.

-
Sup_Droths commented
another case of lets call it by name - stealing copyrights - original author Catiso - Skyline stolen by Down To Earth mesiino. Appeal wronly resolved in favor of theifs
-
Drone1ofall commented
And again legally used CC-Soundtrack is claimed by a band. This is getting ridiculous.
In this up to date example: I use "Quinn's Song: First Night" by Kevin MacLeod licensed under "CC BY 4.0 Deed" but it is identified as "Holier Than You" licensed by Arborescence of Wrath. And my appeal is wrongfully resolved in favor for the that band that's not holding the license of the soundtrack I use. What's wrong with you Twitch? Why do my VOD's get muted?
This is seriously an ever growing and growing problem. -
TexErnie commented
This seriously needs to be considered. I have been using a particular song from Miracle of Sound for most of my streaming days. All of a sudden it gets flagged as being copyrighted. MoS's own website states that it is a valid usage of his music to stream on Twitch. There also needs to be a way of providing some type of proof as to why we, as streamers, think the music is allowed. In my case, a web page from a blog from the actual owner stating it is free for use on streams. Maybe the ones creating the claims need to go through some type of screening and not be automatically trusted?
-
ThornHawthorne commented
I just played one of my own piano performances on my stream and got a copyright claim from someone who had reuploaded MY VIDEO to THEIR youtube channel.
-
Rinvelo commented
I'm getting copyright warnings & audio muted because someone who made YouTube walkthroughs of the games is claiming copyright over the in-game music that their walkthrough videos included. You don't get to claim copyright over a game's music just because you make a walkthrough video on YouTube - and you shouldn't be permitted to submit DMCA claims against Twitch VODs because someone played the same game you did. It's idiotic and there needs to be a way to report these frauds, not legitimize them with the current DMCA dispute process.
-
mvtl33_Co commented
I have been an entertainment industry professional for over 30 years, and what streaming platforms choose to interpret as copyright law is atrocious. I DJ on Twitch now, and two of my videos have had audio blanking despite the scrolling message coming from my LICENSED COPY OF VIRTUAL DJ that i ALSO HAVE A PRS LICENSE under FATAL FLOOR PRODUCTIONS, which is a NOT FOR PROFIT LLC. What is frustrating is that there is NO WAY of preventing these incorrect censorships, nor does one have a line of communication to refute such erroneous, and sometimes downright fraudulent claims; FURTHERMORE, this is causing MORE HARM to the artists themselves, who see no proportional revenue from streamers due to censorship, as repeated airplay of their song is supposed to generate revenue - which is WHAT THE PRS are for! I have the lawful and legal right to not only play music under this license, but there should also be no given reason why they should censor the recording, since I am playing the song ON MP3, at a different pitch, different speed, and NOT CLAIMING TO OWN THEIR MATERIAL AT ALL!
Twitch, you have the option to lead the way, here; in no way is a streamer claiming to own a song - they are just sharing it. If that streamer has a PRS license, why is there no option to tell you that? This way feels more like corporate supression of the revenues of artists...which is currently forming a very large picket line in Hollywood right now.
Copyright law is NOT that confusing. Not when you own and run a production company.
FOLLOW ME FOR MORE TIPS, TWITCH. Lee "Mutlee" Smith, Fatal Floor Productions NFP LLC
-
FaeofWolfPackGamers commented
Correction, It's been muted like 3 or 4 more times by the same person. It's getting tiring to appeal a song that is not even owned by the claiment.
-
FaeofWolfPackGamers commented
My friend and I use the same song for our starting soon screen and have used the song many times for YouTube videos. We got the song from YouTube audio library. Someone tried to claim the song as their own and when I did research they put it that they created the song November of 2022. I'm sorry, if you created the song in 2022, how did we use the song back in our first video in 2020. Once I appealed it, it didn't get copyrighted again but I was annoyed. My friend had to appeal it in her side as well.
-
frogge_gamer commented
I use the same song for every stream I do for the "Starting Soon" and "AFK" screen, and sometimes it'll get claimed by 3 separate people.
None of them own the song. I got it FOR FREE from YouTube's Audio Library. Completely free to use, no rights or attributions needed.
I've appealed every time they strike it, but honestly getting tired of these CLOWNS saying it's theirs. Lemme flag them as untrustworthy so they can't be doing this **** to everyone else.
-
FaeofWolfPackGamers commented
We had our intro song muted because someone used it in their video even though even in their description they are not the artist. Its a DMCA free Song
-
NapalmX5 commented
I've had my War Thunder stream get a portion muted for some random nobody's song that absolutely never appeared in the stream. I just recently had my OoT stream muted three times for the Lost Woods, two of them coming from Zay NNA and the last coming from someone named Damon White. Neither of those has any real claim on Legend of Zelda music that Twitch's bot could hit with mutes over, I'm quite certain Nintendo would agree.
-
SapphireDrew commented
The Super Mario Maker community has endured a lot of this from songs like "Baby Koopa is Crying" which muted videos due to the "artist" illegally using samples of Nintendo's audio in their tracks.
Just recently, something more sinister happened to Splatoon streamers - myself included. Some guy named Will Hilton belonging to a music label known as State51 Conspiracy submitted completely unedited copies in their entirety of Nintendo's Splatoon games to the record label and claimed them as his own. I wrote to the label about this issue but have not received a reply yet. Either they're crazy or this is the best publicity stunt ever pulled by a no-name label no one's heard of.
There's no proper way for me, or anyone in this situation, to properly appeal such cases where the claimant is NOT the rights holder and unjustly enriches themselves, forcing me to contact the label and Twitch support.
-
CreationDefaced commented
Was listening to Aquatic Ambiance (Donkey Kong Country, 1994) and some rapper sampled the song in 2022 and is now claiming the song, when they don't have rights to the original piece. "Something New" by "Samimah Houston The Teacher" is claiming the original piece as their own. I filed a mute appeal as incorrect audio but there is no way to notate the reasoning or provide any additional information at all other than your name/address. Some way to address these situations would be ideal.
-
RoflMyPancakes commented
My Ocarina of Time VODs are getting muted because random rappers with 10 views on youtube are ripping entire Ocarina of Time songs and rapping to them. Then Twitch detects them as the copyright holder of the actual in-game music of Ocarina of Time. I'm not Nintendo to get these people shut down, but my VODs get muted because they stole music.
Any time I enter the Lost Woods I'm muted for "Zay NNA - Topic Zelda's Tomb", they stole game music and rapped to it.
The main menu music gets me muted for "numb like novocaine (prod xthetic)". Another rapper who stole Zelda music and rapped over it.
-
GokenMaster commented
I played through the original Final Fantasy VII on my PS5 (not the remake), and I keep getting claimed for this one song that is clearly not present, or has ever been present in my streams, because it samples the victory music and the stupid bot keeps mistaking the victory music and this stupid song and flagging me for it. If it bothered to listen to more than the first 2 literal seconds, it would recognise it as not being that song, but it doesn't, so the VODs keep getting flagged.
-
Friskafist commented
I have used music provided by Epidemic Sound. It is a music service that allows you to play the music on YouTube videos and Twitch streams if you have a subscription for it (which I do). And for some reason my audio got muted on my last stream. It shouldn't have happened because I have full permission to use the music from that service.
-
elisak30 commented
I use Sega vocaloid music such like hatsune miku,which is free use in Japan,why punishment by American?
-
Aksannyi commented
Chiming in to say that this happened to me with music from Ocarina of Time. Putting a beat behind Saria's Song doesn't make it your song. Absolutely bad faith and infuriating that I should have to go through the hassle to unflag my VOD for this. Too bad Nintendo doesn't catch wind of this nonsense.
-
BenToRo_toro commented
I am absolutely agree for this. I just got muted from the song title Home, which the original artist is Mo Falk& OVSKY. The original artist allow streamer use their music on live stream. The system mute my video and claim the music had owned by somebody else which is not the original artist.
-
mitornimo commented
I Agree with this. I've been using royalty-free music from 2019 for over 3 years now. On Jan 1st of this year (2022) a person uploaded a remix of the music. And now I'm getting muted audio as it's saying this person who uploaded the song with royalty-free music is the owner of it. really annoying I cannot appeal using the evidence I have
to add I use bensounds better days found here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB9rRKHi42w :
which was uploaded in 2019...
but I'm getting muted audio for Better Day Sh Sadequs Haque ft. Trey Fowler
which was uploaded THIS YEAR in 2022...
this is a serious issue