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Metallica added fuel to the already raging fire with DMCA takedowns on Twitch. The band's performance at Blizzcon was broadcast without any hindrances on Blizzard's Twitch channel, but the entire performance was muted on Twitch Gaming's channel.
Watching Twitch mute the audio, several streamers followed suit, fearing DMCA strikes. A few on the internet trolled Twitch for such an incident, but others believe that Metallica deserved it because of their role in creating the DMCA monster.
The internet feels Metallica deserved to be muted.
The contentious incident dates back to the early 2000s, when Napster was a popular music sharing platform. Metallica sued Napster for copyright infringement.
As part of the lawsuit, Napster was asked to remove the entire Metallica music catalog from their platform. Furthermore, they were also asked to ban all the people who had downloaded music from their platform. The number of users to have downloaded their music then was estimated to be around 330,000.
The lawsuit was one of the building blocks for DMCA as we know it today. In a sort of poetic justice, the band's actions two decades ago came back to haunt them.
Overall, the internet believes that DMCA was the worst thing to happen to streaming. The Twitch-DMCA issue has been raging since the middle of 2020, when streamers were asked to delete all VODs containing copyrighted music. Failure to do so would result in a copyright strike.
The issue is that streams on Twitch are heavily clipped. Despite deleting the main VOD, the clips remain online. So it's practically impossible to track down those clips. The chances are that streamers will still be handed a copyright strike, making the situation more problematic.
The internet holds the band responsible for the current situation of the music scene on the internet. Streamers have a tough time streaming with music because it's not easy to come across quality royalty-free music.
It was hilarious to watch Metallica perform while some 8-bit music was used to cover up their performance. However, given that live events aren't feasible, virtual events are what people have to settle for. Incidents like these make it very difficult for people on the internet to enjoy music.
