Streamers reportedly get DMCA bans for streaming near Olympics

After a year of delay due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the 2020 Summer Olympics Games in Tokyo have finally started today with the opening ceremony.

As many have expected, the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony included many references to video games, for example, the Tokyo Olympics parade of nations was accompanied by a number of famous OSTs from legendary video game franchises from Japan, including Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.

Unfortunately, despite being gamer-friendly, the Olympics organisation is also very strict when it comes to DMCA, and especially this year as Japanese corporations are known to be merciless in regards to copyrights.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is also known for being rigorous when it comes to protecting its content and thus we now have a situation where Twitch streamers from Japan are reporting that they are being banned from the platform while streaming in public places near the Olympic venues.

Several Japanese IRL (in real life) streamers have reportedly been banned from Twitch because they were live streaming from public streets and parks near the Japan National Stadium, where the 2020 Summer Olympics opening ceremony took place earlier today.

Two of my friends (@root_bottlehead
) have been banned for streaming in public places near the #Olympics2021 One streamed a flyover from jets In a public park, the other outside the stadium. IOC is abusing DMCA on #twitch and @TwitchSupport
is doing nothing to stop it. pic.twitter.com/kWgWl1ZT2g

— Kuri | Partnered Tokyo/Japan IRL Twitch streamer (@KuriTwitch) July 23, 2021

As reported by Kuri, who is a partnered IRL Twitch streamer from Japan, two of his streamer friends have been banned for this reason.

"Two of my friends have been banned for streaming in public places near the Olympics 2021," he tweeted out. "One streamed a flyover from jets in a public park, the other outside the stadium. IOC is abusing DMCA on Twitch and Twitch Support is doing nothing to stop it."

While the IOC has full rights to send a DMCA takedown notice in regard to the Tokyo Olympics content, banning someone because they were streaming in public places is definitely a grey area, especially if their focus wasn't on the event itself.

• Read more: Twitch DMCA strikes policy update: Repeat infringer and timed strikes explained

Twitch support still hasn't come out with the official statement in regards to the Tokyo Olympics DCMA strikes and IRL Tokyo streamers are currently not sure what they are allowed to do and what not, as there are no clear guidelines.