The past several weeks seem to have been extremely trying for content creators on Twitch. Recently, thousands of streamers received emails from the platform itself, stating they were being issued one or more DMCA takedown notices, but Twitch failed to indicate what content was actually responsible for the violation. Naturally this angered and scared several streamers, who were then forced to go through every clip and VOD on their channel and painstakingly delete everything to avoid another violation.
Since then, the CEO of Twitch, Emmett Shear, has apologized for how the streaming platform handled these notices, and promised that Twitch is working on several improvements for its content creators in the future. While this promise has some players feeling somewhat better, others have continued to feel uneasy about playing any music or sound at all in their streams, including the audio coming from the game they're playing. However, in order to alleviate some of this tension, Harmonix has provided content creators with guidelines on how to avoid DMCA notices while streaming its new game, Fuser.
Players that are wanting to stream Fuser, the game that gives players the opportunity to live out their fantasies as a DJ, will definitely want to check out Harmonix's guidelines on how to avoid a DMCA takedown. According to Harmonix, one of the requirements to avoid DMCA is that streamers and content creators cannot monetize the stream or video in any way. This means that players cannot run ads, take donations or bits, or even subscribers while they are streaming Fuser. Not only that, but players cannot even have overlays on to suggest viewers engage in any form of monetization.
Streamers wishing to play Fuser on stream also cannot have co-branding or cross-promotion with other brands during their time playing. This seems to make sense, as this would be considered another form of monetization. The only provided exception to these guidelines are a list of hand selected songs that Harmonix has provided on its site. If using only these 33 songs, content creators may monetize their streams/videos.
While it's great that Harmonix has provided a set of guidelines for content creators to use when making content about Fuser, the rules provided seem overly strict. With so many streamers making their living off of Twitch, it may be unlikely that these creators will give Fuser the time of day when planning their stream schedule. So while Fuser may be receiving plenty of positive reviews from critics, it seems likely that it won't be a hit on Twitch.
Fuser is available now on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
Source: Harmonix
