The concern that they had given up their safe harbor protections last year may explain why this year, Twitch’s copyright censor trigger finger was a little, well, twitchy. Its founders are guitarist-vocalist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, who advertised in a newspaper looking for musicians like Diamond Head and Iron Maiden to form his band. It was the result, claimed Twitch, of a sudden influx of music-related takedowns and fears of being sued by the music labels sending them. It was formed in Los Angeles in 1981 but spent most of the time in San Francisco. Last year, Twitch made headlines for an ill-executed drive to respond to DMCA takedowns, which included a strange notice to users that it was unilaterally deleting content and that it understood that this took away their ability to counter-notice. It also had every reason to be particularly careful about music on its service in general. Twitch had every reason to take no chances with Metallica music. Their actions led, at least partially, to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that is the cornerstone of Internet law today. Way back in the early 2000s, when digital music was just getting off the ground, Metallica put themselves on the frontlines of the fight against downloads, launching high-profile lawsuits and testifying in front of Congress. Which is more than fair, given Metallica’s particular history. Or it was simply unsure whether it had the rights or not, and opted to be safe. For whatever reason, it seems Twitch had the rights to rebroadcast the stream but not to Metallica’s music. The band is known for its fast tempos, aggressive musicianship, and instrumental skill, which have earned them a place as one of the big four of thrash metal alongside Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer. It was all the weirder because the video stream was left intact. Metallica is a heavy metal band from the United States that was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich. Twitch’s placeholder music was very ice-cream-truck-esque. Apparently fearful of copyright issues, Twitch played… something else. But the official Twitch gaming channel went another way. On Blizzard’s Twitch and YouTube channels, the music was transmitted live, with no problem. The convention, as is de rigueur in the pandemic, was online. The band Metallica played live for the gaming convention BlizzCon.
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