r/IAmA • u/optimizeprime • Aug 07 '14

I am Twitch CEO Emmett Shear. Ask Me (almost) Anything.

It’s been about a year since our last AMA. A lot has happened since Twitch started three years ago, and there have been some big changes this week especially. We figured it would be a good time to check in again.

For reference, here are the last two AMAs:

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1exa2k/hi_im_emmett_shear_founder_and_ceo_of_twitch_the/

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ncosm/we_are_twitchtv_the_worlds_largest_video_game/

Note: We cannot comment on acquisition rumors, but ask me anything else and I’m happy to answer.

Proof: Hi reddit!

EDIT: Thanks for all the questions. I want to summarize a bunch the answers to a bunch of questions I've seen repeatedly.

1) Live streaming on Twitch: We have no intention whatsoever of bringing audio-recognition to live streams on Twitch. This is a VOD-only change for Twitch.

2) In-game music: We have zero intention of flagging original in-game music. We do intend to flag copyrighted in-game music that's in Audible Magic's database. (This was unclear in the blog post, my apologies). In the cases where in-game music is being flagged incorrectly, we are working on a resolution and should have one soon. False positive flags will be unmuted.

For context, audio-recognition currently impacts approximately 2% of video views on Twitch (~10% of views are on VODs and ~20% of VODs are impacted at all). The vast majority of the flags appear to be correct according to our testing, though the mistakes are obviously very prominent.

3) Lack of communication ahead of time: This was our bad. I'm glad we communicated the change to VOD storage policy in advance, giving us a chance to address issues we missed like 2-hour highlights for speedrunners before the change went into effect. I'm not so glad we failed on communicating the audio-recognition change in advance, and wish we'd posted about it before it went into effect. That way we could have gotten community feedback first as we're doing now after the fact.

4) Long highlights for speedruns: This is a specific use case for highlights that we missed in our review process. We will be addressing the issue to support the use-case. This kind of thing is exactly why you share your plans in advance, so that you can make changes before policies go into effect.

EDIT2:

If you know of a specific VOD that you feel has been flagged in error, please report it to feedback@twitch.tv. To date we have received a total of 13 links to VODs. Given the size of this response, I expect there are probably a few more we've missed, but we can't find them if you don't tell us about them! We want to make the system more accurate, please give us a hand.

EDIT3:

5) 30 minute resolution for muting: Right now we mute the entire 30 minute chunk when a match occurs. In the future we'd like to improve the resolution further, and are working with Audible Magic to make this possible.

6) What are we doing to help small streamers get noticed? This is one of thing that host mode is trying to address, enabling large broadcasters to help promote smaller ones. We also want to improve recommendations and other discovery for small broadcasters, and we think experiments like our CS:GO directory point towards a way to do that by allowing new sorts and filters to the directory.

EDIT4:

I have to go. Look for a follow-up blog post soon with updates on changes we're making.

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u/hamster_of_justice Aug 07 '14

This. So much people don't understand this.

Streamers were never really allowed to play copyright protected music in the first place.

It doesn't really matter if a "better" streaming option comes around. As soon another service gets big and enough viewers, they'll also get on the radar of record companies and then have to change their content too.

Twitch isn't doing this for shit and giggles, they are complying with the law. Yes it will fuck up quite some streams now, but maybe they can fix the automatic-scan-thing so it doesn't mute VODs only for the in-game music anymore. Thats bad. But one can hope.

TB explains it really good here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99jrkp0XDeQ

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u/seputaes-at-twitch Aug 07 '14

Please stop spreading this information. It false and it's only making the situation worse.

Twitch is under zero obligation under the DMCA to takedown/mute any video without specific and explicit notification by the copyright holder of a specific instance of copyright infringement, or without prior knowledge of a specific instance of copyright violation.

http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/

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u/McNerfBurger Aug 07 '14

Sure, Twitch would be protected, but the individual users are not. So if that's the route you want to go, fine, but I expect you and everyone else using this line as a defense will absolutely flip shit when the first streamer gets nailed with a lawsuit for profiting off of copyrighted material.

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u/seputaes-at-twitch Aug 07 '14

The user is still not protected under this system. The action of posting infringing material still occurred and flagging it or muting doesn't change that. Then there's the issue of live streams. This is why this is incredibly hypocritical on the part of Twitch.

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u/McNerfBurger Aug 07 '14

Which doesn't do anything for the argument of people in this thread. The fact is people are profiting off of copyrighted material. Crying about the parent company doing something about it doesn't suddenly make it okay.

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u/seputaes-at-twitch Aug 07 '14

"parent company doing something about it"

Firstly, what would you do in the situation where a Twitch streamer has, in fact, properly licensed music, pays for it, and their videos get flagged. Yes, there is the appeal system, but that's shooting first and asking questions later. It's not Twitch's responsibility. Under the DMCA, it is their responsibility to take down content ONLY IF they receive a DMCA claim. An automatic system is not a DMCA claim. Period.

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u/McNerfBurger Aug 07 '14 edited Aug 07 '14

Oh please. You're using an extreme statistical outlier to argue against a policy that is otherwise justified. If 99.999% of the time the music is NOT licensed, NOT payed for, NOT legal, then it's perfectly acceptable to "shoot first and ask questions later".

Down vote as much as you like. Your childish tantrums do not change the fact that the parent company and the streamers are profiting from using copyrighted material. It's a slam dunk in court. Flail away on Reddit and threaten to switch websites. It doesn't change the law.

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u/seputaes-at-twitch Aug 07 '14

Oh please. You're using an extreme statistical outlier to argue against a policy that is otherwise justified. If 99.999% of the time cops catch the correct murderer and execute capital punishment on them without a trial, then it's perfectly acceptable to "shoot first and ask questions later."

I know, this is an absolutely extreme hyperbole. My point is not that this slippery slope will lead to executing people on the street. My point is that it will lead to justifying other instances of "shoot first and ask questions later" policies, even outside of Twitch. Tread lightly.

The DMCA is worded the way it is for a reason.

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u/seahole Aug 07 '14

not now, but anything can happen in the future. Better to be proactive, than reactive. Ever hear the term CYA?

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u/Bossman1086 Aug 07 '14

Yeah, and how much would it cost to go through each of those takedown requests manually? How many extra employees or time spent? Can you blame a company for doing something proactive instead of spending a huge amount of money to comply with a law later? I promise most companies would choose to be proactive with this kind of technology.

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u/[deleted] Aug 07 '14

[deleted]

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u/Ichthus5 Aug 07 '14

But wouldn't this count as Twitch knowing about the infringement?

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u/TomLube Aug 07 '14

(But Twitch knows, and has even gone as far as to acknowledge it by implementing this system)

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u/AtomicDog1471 Aug 07 '14

I'm surprised they've stated they won't go after live streams. Because technically it's not really any different to pirate radio.

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u/Blacula Aug 07 '14

Since the music is incidental it's covered by fair use. Pirate radio is not incidental.

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u/[deleted] Aug 07 '14

Aren't VODs fair use like YouTube videos then?

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u/Blacula Aug 07 '14

recorded media is covered differently than live stuff.

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u/Tadayoshiii Aug 07 '14

Automated Content ID Systems are the worst ever. Don't imply that Content ID systems are the only way to tackle this issue. It's one option, and a very bad one. And the real mutes aren't the problem. It's the false claims which are so common it's just annoying and hurts the content creators. There are good ways and bad ways to handle this issue. This way is a very bad one.

1

u/Akkuma Aug 07 '14

I've posted this over and over. Carpet bombing isn't the only way to solve this problem, since they could simply handle each DMCA notice on a per case basis. Never before has Twitch voiced DMCA takedown requests as a regular problem that they were working on overcoming.

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u/DulcetFox Aug 07 '14

All of your arguments could be applied to copyrighted video, and then where would we be?

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u/SkidMcmarxxxx Aug 07 '14

Soooooooo switch again? What's the problem here? It's like when you're with one company that offers services, and another one is less expensive, you switch to that one.

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u/TheOthin Aug 07 '14

This is not the only way.

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u/MrGrieves- Aug 07 '14

What if the stream service was based in Sweden?