Angry Joe slams Twitch's "unfair" DMCA process after recent strike
Popular YouTuber and Twitch streamer himself Jose Antonio ‘Angry Joe’ Vargas has slammed the platform’s DMCA system after recently being hit with a copyright strike of his own, calling the dispute process “unfair” to creators.
Twitch’s DMCA system is in the spotlight again. After a wave of takedowns in 2020, a recent flare-up in 2021 has got creators concerned their accounts will be terminated, even if they follow all the right processes.
While the platform is obligated to follow takedown requests from record labels and other rights holders, many creators like Angry Joe believe Twitch’s process is “unfair.”
Joe highlighted two major issues with Twitch’s system. The first is the strikes on people’s accounts are permanent, and don’t expire after 90 days like YouTube.
“Copyright strikes do not depreciate after a set period of time. If I receive three strikes my channel is terminated, yet I can’t see the strike, I can’t submit a counter-notification, I can’t submit a dispute,” he said in a recent rant.
“It can’t get any worse than this.”
Twitch’s DMCA tools have been labeled as “unfair” by many creators, who are now fed up with the platform’s ‘disrespectful’ stance.The second is Twitch’s dispute process is non-existent.
Joe used an example of a copyright strike he received in February 2021 for a Warzone clip dating back to November 2020, which had the Astronomia song — popularized by the coffin dance meme — playing inside the game.
“Here is your DMCA strike. What is the clip? We don’t have a link to the clip. We told you to delete all of your VODs. There is no ‘Dispute’ button,” he explained.
“You can’t even review the VODs identified in DMCA notifications in your dashboard, and they don’t plan [on adding that feature] that until December 2021.”
YouTube, which struggled with an uptick of DMCA claims years ago, implemented a better system for creators to dispute these takedowns.
Now, Joe believes Twitch has “the responsibility to treat creators right.”
“This is so weighted in favor of [record labels] that it is unconscionable. They make millions of dollars, and this is the amount of protection content creators get,” he said. “You have to show some respect to the people that build Twitch. This was all created by us. You wouldn’t have any of this without us.”
Twitch has a roadmap to implement new DMCA tools before the end of 2021, including an automated dispute process and an easy way to remove clips that could infringe on copyright.
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