Twitch CEO apologizes for audio removal from VODs, vows better implementation

 

A day after at least 20 percent of their video on demand (VOD) content has been muted, Twitch CEO Emmet Shear apologized during a Reddit AmA ("Ask Me Anything") last Thursday for not warning users before the implementation of its new policies.

 

"This was our bad. I'm glad we communicated the change to VOD storage policy in advance, giving us a chance to address issues we missed like 2-hour highlights for speedrunners before the change went into effect. I'm not so glad we failed on communicating the audio-recognition change in advance, and wish we'd posted about it before it went into effect. That way we could have gotten community feedback first as we're doing now after the fact," he wrote in the summation of his AmA.

 

Shear's clarification comes on the heels of Twitch's recent move to remove or mute videos with unauthorized, copyrighted third-party audio content on the website. VODs with third-party, in-game, and ambient music covered by Audible Magic, an audio recognition company, will be muted at the affected parts to protect broadcasters—and the company—from copyright infringement.

 

However, during its implementation, VODs have been wrongly flagged by the audio recognition system, a flaw recognized by the company's later inclusion of an "appeal" button. Appeals, however, must be compliant with provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) and Twitch's Terms of Services.

 

Conversely, copyright owners whose content is used without authorizations in VODs or live broadcasts must submit a notification with the same provisions. Live broadcasts will only be muted after being archived. 

 

"We recognize that the system is not yet perfect. We want to make this system as fair and unobtrusive as possible, and we greatly appreciate your help," wrote Matthew DiPietro, VP of Marketing & Communications.

 

Ars Technica reported that high-profile events such as Valve's DOTA 2 tournament, The International 4, and its Twitch Weekly, the website's own weekly gaming show, have also been muted. Games with music written specifically for it, as well as games that license commercially-available songs, were also affected by the policy change.

 

In the AmA post, Shear mentioned The International 4 as a 'prominent' mistake in their implementations. 

 

Spun off in 2011 from the now-defunct Justin.tv, Twitch was reportedly in talks with Google video sharing site YouTube last May for a deal which would see the former acquired for $1 billion.

 

Users of the live streaming website have voiced concerns over content restrictions which YouTube may impose on the site upon acquisition. Despite either side not making the sale public, Forbes and other prominent websites speculate that Twitch's copyright policy update may have inadvertently revealed its acquirement by the Internet giant. — Rie Takumi/TJD, GMA News