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Twitch signs deal with US music trade body

Twitch signs deal with US music trade body

Streaming service Twitch has signed an agreement with US trade body, the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA).

That's according to The Washington Post – and reported by Kotaku – which says that the Amazon-owned platform emailed streamers to say explain the deal, claiming that this will result in a "more flexible and forgiving to creators who inadvertently or incidentally use music in their streams than the existing process required under the DMCA and similar global laws."

What this means is that creators on Twitch will be given a warning if they use copyrighted music before their content is removed outright. While broadly similar to the existing Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) system this appears to be slightly more flexible in recognition of the fact that not all copyright violation is deliberate.

"Both NMPA and Twitch are creator-focused and our respective communities will greatly benefit from this agreement, which respects the rights of songwriters and paves the way for future relationships between our publisher members, songwriters and the service," NMPA president and CEO David Israelite said.

"Through our discussions, Twitch has shown a commitment to valuing musicians and to creating new ways to connect them with fans in this burgeoning and exciting space."

The NMPA has also taken Roblox to task, claiming that the platform has violated music copyright, something that the company has refuted.

One month after this, Roblox signed a deal with Sony Music.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.