Twitch CEO Responds to Controversy About New Copyright Policies, Competitor Fires Back

Yesterday, Twitch overhauled the way it enforces copyright laws on audio, implementing automated censorship of thousands of its archived videos. Now, when you watch a video with copyrighted audio, the part with the music is muted. Twitch also changed the way it stores its archived video, removing the option to save a video indefinitely.

These new policies were expectedly controversial, so Twitch CEO Emmett Shear started a Reddit Ask Me Anything thread and answered several burning questions from the community. Before he addressed any questions, he put some concerns to rest by saying that Twitch has no plans to censor live video. However, Reddit users generally did not find his answers satisfactory and downvoted them until they were hidden behind a warning. You can read some of his answers below. (Thanks to user Rotsuki for gathering all of them)

Noted speedrunner Cosmo Wright: Why should I keep streaming on Twitch as opposed to a different site that [does not have content ID, copyright, and storage] issues?

Shear: With regard to 2 hour chunks [as the max length of video you can store indefinitely], our research prior to launching the feature indicated that almost no highlights were longer than 2 hours, and we were concerned about abuse of the tool. It's clear that we underestimated the demand and need for a solution here, and fortunately we have 3 weeks to figure one out. Expect changes here soon.

It has disproportionately large impact on certain communities (speedrunning most obviously) and we're very concerned about making sure that every community on Twitch has a good experience.

With regard to content ID, I understand your feelings here. We have absolutely no intention of flagging songs due to original in-game music. If that's happening (and it appears it is), it's a problem and we will investigate and try to fix it.

With regards to your last question, why Twitch: Because we care about you and your viewers, and we want every broadcaster on Twitch to be protected from potential liability. No matter how remote you might feel the issue is, we aren't willing to run the risk someone's life gets ruined over this.

Aniviasrevenge: Are you taking the stance that streaming audio isn't fair use? If you believe it is not, what is your rationale for believing streaming video is fair use?

Shear: Game companies have the public stance (and private stance directly with Twitch) that they allow anyone to stream their games. This isn't a fair use argument, it's a generally available license that you're taking advantage of.

Broadcasting unlicensed music in the background is not fair use either, and there is no generally available license. Therefore this is not something that we want our broadcasters to accept liability for (nor do we want to accept liability for it either).

They're completely different cases, and the logic is different in each.

Journalisms: So why is Dota 2 content (even The International) flagged, when Valve is [one of those companies that allow anyone to stream their games]?

Shear: That was a false positive (misidentification of crowd noise as music), which we've now fixed.

DooplissForce: Did Twitch need to change up things? Was there some sort of issue or problem that sparked this? If not, why then did Twitch change stuff?

Shear: We did need to change things. This is laying groundwork for some work in the future you guys are REALLY going to like. We've been intending to do this for some time, but it took us a while to identify and select a content identification partner and get the system up and reliable.

SirSnugglybear: Why was no advanced notice given before these policy changes were implemented?

Shear: Simply put: we screwed up and should have announced it ahead of time. Sorry.

J4nG: Is there a process a streamer can go through if they believe that their videos have been unfairly flagged and muted?

Shear: For now, please email feedback@twitch.tv if you think there's a problem. We're working on building an appeals system since that's obviously important. And no, I can't comment, it says so right in my original post.

Thehoods: Shouldn't you have built an appeals process before implementing a system with these results?

Shear: Probably, but no v1 is perfect.

Shear went on to answer many more questions, which you can check out on the Reddit thread. It seems, however, that even though this copyright system is here to stay, Twitch is acknowledging that it has been far too strict in its censorship.

But the controversy has already begun, and some of Twitch's competitors are capitalizing on it. Hitbox, another streaming service, posted criticism of these policies today (although the post never mentions Twitch).

According to the post, "It's sad to see someone lose touch with the very people that made them big. Forcing a 30+ second delay on streamers and ruining their [Videos on Demand] with automated copyright claims is a slap in the face of everyone who tries to share their passion for gaming with the world. Luckily we all have a voice and can make ourselves heard. We did it by creating a platform that is deeply rooted within the community, and you can do it too by joining with us. At Hitbox you're always with friends, and the soundtrack is whatever you want it to be."

Many speedrunners have been critical of the policies as well. A user in subreddit r/speedrun even created a list of all of the speedrunners moving over to Hitbox.

If you stream on Twitch, are you considering switching to a different service? Let us know in the comments.