Unleashing the filters

From the Verge:

Twitch plans to start automatically scanning clips of live streams for copyrighted music following a wave of takedown requests on years-old videos, which has frustrated streamers over the last week. Twitch says it will automatically delete clips with copyrighted music in them and that it will not penalize streamers — under its current rules, streamers can get strikes for copyright violations that could ultimately lead to a ban.

These takedown requests come from the RIAA which represents the major record companies that have been pinky swearing in the Commission’s stakeholder dialogue that they are not engaging in mass scale takedowns on YouTube. Yet here they are, going after fairly insignificant uses of music in old twitch clips (which, by definition, are shorter than a minute). Anyone who still believes that large corporate rightholders will not use all technological measures at their disposal to go after unauthorised uses of their works, now matter how insignificant, is a fool.

And the fact that a major platform like Twitch (which is owned by Amazon and thus has near indefinite ressources) can be pressured to delete wholesale all clips that contain copyrighted music (or at least the repertoire represented by the RIAA) does not bode well for what we can expect once Article 17 is in force and all platforms operating in the EU will be required to make use of the “services” offered by Audible Magic and the like.