BlizzConline kicked off with a bang, giving fans of Diablo, World of Warcraft, and Overwatch plenty of things to be excited about, however, the bizarre decision to close out the opening ceremony with a prerecorded performance by rock band Metallica raised concerns, as Twitch was forced to mute the audio to avoid a possible DMCA strike.
During the broadcast streamed on the Twitch Gaming channel, the company decided to completely mute the band, replacing it with generic 8-bit music to the amusement of thousands of viewers, who relished in the irony of the situation that has been affecting hundreds of content creators.
the current state of Twitch: the official Twitch Gaming channel cut off the live Metallica concert to play 8bit folk music to avoid DMCA pic.twitter.com/sCn56So8Ee
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) February 19, 2021
Many users have taken to social media to showcase their various reactions to this particular incident.
OK, the situation with Twitch and DMCA is just downright ridiculous at this point.
— Colton, The Code Lyoko Memelord (@LyokoMemelord) February 20, 2021
They cut off Metallica.
You NEVER cut off Metallica. https://t.co/R3YKMAx6Tb
The situation surrounding the official Twitch Gaming channel having to switch to Royalty Free music catalogues in order to avoid getting a DMCA Takedown on their own platform due to Metallica is simply ridiculous; Copyleft Law must become the standard to prevent future scenarios.
— Roya Rockwood (@Royameadow) February 20, 2021
Twitch is a joke. DMCA is a joke. The music industry is a joke. Metallica is a joke https://t.co/l9TfjxkG1q
— Econs🏕 (@NotEcons) February 20, 2021
It should be noted this situation only occurred on the Twitch Gaming channel, since the official Blizzard streams on the platform, as well as on YouTube and Facebook, could be heard normally.
However, it has been reported that in the last few minutes, streamers have started deleting their broadcasts reacting to the opening ceremony, in order not to fall to a DMCA strike.
Perhaps Twitch should follow its own advice and not stream content with copyrighted music in it.