One of the biggest issues facing Twitch streamers is finally being dealt with, thanks to an assortment of new tools being rolled out by the Amazon-owned platform to combat DMCA strikes.
DMCA notices became a major problem for streamers in 2020 and continued into 2021, with old VODs featuring copyrighted music leading to channel suspensions and plenty of frustration.
It was so bad, JakeNBake had a two-year-old IRL VOD receive a copyright takedown because Kanye West music was playing over speakers while he was outdoors.
This eventually caused some streamers to reconsider IRL broadcasts as a whole, worried that even going into a grocery store where music was playing could lead to complications.
Twitch is rolling out new tools for managing DMCAs:• Receive and track DMCA notices on your Dashboard• Delete/unpublish VODs in batches of up to 20 at a time, or all at once with a single click pic.twitter.com/FvytWn2VB6
— Lowco (@LowcoTV) March 17, 2021
Twitch has acknowledged this problem and understands streamers’ complaints. Now, the platform is rolling out some tools to help deal with DMCA notices and address them quickly.
As showcased by StreamerSquare CEO Lowco, who specializes in helping streamers with advice, Twitch is now notifying users via their “My Channel” inbox in addition to emails when there is a problem.
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This should ensure that whenever there is a copyright strike against a channel, the streamer is aware of it and can take the appropriate actions.
Additionally, Twitch is now upping the VOD-deletion capabilities streamers have, allowing them to delete all VODs or in batches of 20 at a time.
Now, streamers can watch all of their unpublished VODs directly in Video Producer without needing to first download them.
As you can see in the screenshots she provided, Twitch has made it much easier to spot when there is a DMCA claim and to delete VODs.
While all these updates are definitely nice improvements, the issues regarding music playing in the background, even when the streamer has no control over what others play, remains a prevalent problem.
Hopefully, Twitch can figure out some methods to help streamers out in more ways than just cleaning up VODs and being aware of DMCA claims in the near future, but for now, at least there are some additional tools at their disposal.