Twitch cracks down on unauthorized third-party audio

Video game livestreaming website Twitch.tv has announced has implemented technology that scans and mutes in-game and background music of on-demand video that contains unauthorized third-party music.

"We respect the rights of copyright owners, and are voluntarily undertaking this effort to help protect our broadcasters and copyright owners," Twitch said in a statement on its blog.

Under the new changes, Audible Magic, a software company which works closely with the recorded music industry, will scan past and future VODs (videos on-demand) for copyrighted music by clients of Audible Magic. Twitch notes that this also includes in-game and ambient music.

When music in the Audible Magic database is found, the "affected portion" of the VOD will be muted and volume controls for that video will be turned off. Third party music will be scanned for in 30-minute blocks, and if Audible Magic detects its clients' music, it will mute the entire 30 minutes. Past broadcasts and highlights with Flagged Content are exportable, but will remain muted.

Twitch admits that Audio Recognition is "not guaranteed to be 100% accurate," and "may return false positives or miss content from copyright owners who do not work with Audible Magic." In an attempt to help Twitch streamers avoid any problems, the company has provided a variety of resources with free-to-use music. There's also instructions for appealing any case where your video is muted.

Audible Magic is currently only scanning VODs, but it's quite easy to see a future in which Twitch also begins to crack down on livestreaming broadcasts. Welcome to the future of livestreaming, folks. Things are looking grim.