Streamers begin being banned from Twitch for DMCA strikes, one claims warning was in spam folder

Twitch DMCA takedowns over copyrighted music are once again in the spotlight after a number of streamers, big and small, reported recieving bans for infringing copyrighted content.

Two weeks ago it was reported that Twitch had started issuing "final" warnings to streamers who were violating music copyrights laws.

Today's bans show Twitch was serious when they said that the previous message was a "one-time warning", with the first permabans being handed down to those streamers who did not comply with the rules.

(Picture: Bucklington)

Bucklington, a relatively small partnered variety streamer, has revealed via his Twitter account that he was one of the first who got permabanned over copyright strikes.

did i just get permabanned @TwitchSupport ? pic.twitter.com/bFzZERulua

— Buck (@DisIsBuck) November 2, 2020

"In accordance with the DMCA, we have a policy of terminating the accounts of repeating infringers," reads the message he got from Twitch.

"Your account is now terminated because your conduct (including the conduct that resulted in this copyright strike) has led us to consider or treat you as a repeat infringer."

Further down, a warning has been given not to try to bypass these penalties and that any new account he creates will be immediately suspended.

Bucklington says that "he did some research" and claims that two other copyright claims were in his email's "Promotion" tab, not in his actual inbox and that he had no idea he had previously been warned about copyright infringement.

• Read more: Stadia dev slams streamers after DMCA controversy: "They should pay for the games they stream"

Several other smaller streamers stood up in his defence, urging Twitch to reconsider his permaban and arguing that it is not acceptable that critical information like this could end up in a content creator's spam folder.

Some are even claiming that they are targeting smaller streamers first as a warning to the platform's bigger personalities to comply and remove any copyrighted music from their saved VODs and clips.

(Picture: DreamHack)

Another streamer that was banned was Rocket League esports pro Mariano "SquishyMuffinz" Arruda, which prompted the Rocket League community to start a #FreeSquishy campaign in an effort to get his account re-instated.

That effort was ultimately successful with the popular streamer unbanned within hours but it came at the cost of deleting all his VODs.

Permanent deletion of all VODs is a method many content creators have been undertaking in these past few weeks, including big names like DansGaming, who deleted 11 years of streaming after the DMCA threat.

Streamers are seeing it as an unfortunate but necessary lesser evil and the only safe option to be 100% sure you are protected against DMCA strikes.

Streamers have criticized Twitch for failing to properly communicate with their partners what should they do to comply with DMCA and what is the best course of action to remain on the right side of the law.

Twitch has recently made attempts to better inform their streamers, last week the held a Creator Camp to help educate streamers on the do's and do's not when it comes to copyright and streaming but it may be that it has come too late for repeat offenders.

Whether they actually knew they were offending is another matter.