Twitch DMCA strikes again! Streamer reportedly banned for clip from 2015

Joseph Osceola "Cowsep" Hursey was reportedly banned three weeks ago for a 2015 VOD containing copyrighted material, he announced via Twitter early on Thursday, 3rd December.

BANNED ON TWITCH for over 3 WEEKS now for DMCA on a 2015 clip I deleted. No one is answering me!

I sent an e-mail with all the information they needed to DMCA Twitch and they didn't even read it. ITS BEEN 2 WEEKS!

I even included a screenshot. PLEASE HELP @TwitchSupport

Thanks pic.twitter.com/oEMY866ww0

— Cowsep (@Cowsep) December 3, 2020

Cowsep also mentioned he contacted the email he was provided two weeks ago with proof and evidence that the incriminating VODs had previously been deleted but to no avail.

He called for action to be taken tagging @TwitchSupport, hoping to cause some commotion with his 80k plus followers on Twitter.

(Picture: Cowsep)

The 30-year-old remains in streamer purgatory, joining an unknown, but growing, number in 2020 who have found themselves suspended from the platform for DMCA offences. Twitch's willingness to strike content and enforce DMCA has steadingly increased, with streamers big and small, reporting strikes and suspensions for the platforms sometimes for infringing material from clips and VODs years in the past.

The renewed vigor in enforcing DMCA has been controversial, streamers were effectively forced to delete years and years of VODs and Clips as there was no failsafe way of keeping them and not risk a DMCA strike.

There is also the grey area around licensed music in games, by the letter of the law streamers do not have permission to broadcast some of this music. They issue being what games is it alright to do so, and which aren't?

• Read more: Twitch reportedly set to get live DMCA strikes "soon"

Its a bizzare situation that even Twitch themselves has taken some responsibility over apologising for not helping streamers enough when DMCA strikes were becoming an issue, and also offering tips on how to avoid strikes, most recently during Fortnite's blockbuster end to Season 4 where which was watched my miilions on the platform but where streamers were warned to mute their in-game sound when licensed music was set to be played.