Yikes: Twitch launches system to block copyrighted audio in videos on demand

This seems like a disaster in the making

Some more changes to the way archived broadcasts work at Twitch, and you’re not going to like them. The live streaming site is now using technology in partnership with Audible Magic “to scan past and future [videos on demand] for music owned or controlled by clients of Audible Magic,” including in-game and ambient music. As you can imagine, this isn’t going over well.

Past broadcasts found to contain flagged content will have portions of their audio automatically muted. The system scans in 30-minute blocks — so if third-party audio is detected in a specific block, that individual half-hour segment will be muted. Currently, Twitch is not scanning live broadcasts and will not have automated takedowns of live content.

Twitch admits that the system “may return false positives or miss content from copyright owners who do not work with Audible Magic.” In which case: “If you believe that your video has been flagged improperly and that you have cleared the rights to all of the sound recordings in your uploaded video, then we will consider unmuting your video if you send us a counter-notification that is compliant with the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (‘DMCA’).”

If this sounds similar to YouTube’s oft-criticized Content ID system, pretty much. I’m sensing another clusterf**k, even for broadcasters who go out of their way to get permission to use audio.

Has Twitch grown too big for its own good?

Changes To Audio In VODs [Thanks, DV2FOX]