Twitch DMCAs Be Damned, DragonForce Will Let Anyone Stream Its Music

In the wake of Twitch DMCA takedowns, DragonForce has announced that its last three albums are available for all content creators on the streaming platform to use.

Earlier this month, a number of Twitch streamers were faced with unexpected DMCA notices on their content. The streaming platform took to Twitter to advise content creators to take down clips containing background music from 2017 to 2019 while it worked on dealing with the sudden influx of requests from copyright holders on its end.

The DMCA takedown notices issued to various content creators were not the result of Twitch changing any existing fair-use politics, but the result of existing DMCA laws being enforced against the platform in a visible way for the first time.

Since then, Dragonforce has confirmed that its last three albums--Extreme Power Metal (2019), Maximum Overload (2014), and Reaching Into Infinity (2017)--are now available for streamers to use on Twitch. Lead guitarist Herman Li announced during the GCX charity stream that tracks from those albums would be able to be played DMCA-free, and that creators could play those tracks "without having anything to worry about."

It looks like the DMCA restrictions are being enforced not only against past clips and videos on Twitch, but also on livestreams. Music streamers, in particular, are concerned about the penalties being handed out and are seeking solutions to the issues that Twitch poses when its service intersects with legal licensing requirements.

GameSpot has officially kicked off Play For All--a celebration of all things gaming. Join us as we bring you the summer's hottest news, previews, interviews, features, and videos, as well as raise money for COVID-19 relief efforts and Black Lives Matter with the help of our friends from around the gaming world. Check out the Play For All schedule for more.