If you’re part of the streaming world, you may have noticed DMCA getting mentioned a lot. We’re here to explain what it means!

In a world full of initialisms and acronyms, it can be hard to keep track of what means what.

Fun (depending on your perspective) Fact: Laser is, in fact, an acronym and not a word in its own right.

Streaming on platforms like Twitch is an awesome way to share your gaming sessions or any cool skills you have with the world. It can create community and foster friendships online. However, it does come with some rules and regulations that need to be adhered to.

For instance, if you want to add music to your Twitch stream, you need to ensure you’re using the right kind of music. If you don’t, you could be hit with a DMCA strike.

What does DMCA Stand for?

DMCA stands for Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

It is an American legislation, which implements the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Performances and Phonograms Treaty and the 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty. Basically, this means it keeps an eye on any unauthorised digital replication of any copyrighted intellectual property. For example, they wouldn’t be your biggest fan if you took a Taylor Swift track without permission and used it in your livestream.

How to Avoid DMCA Strikes

Last year, there was some commotion caused in the Twitch community do to a wave of fairly aggressive DMCA takedowns. Twitch explained that they opted for mas takedowns in order to manage an influx of DMCA notifications. In response to this, they also set out to educate users around music licensing and usage of it within streams.

In order to avoid any DMCA trouble on Twitch, you should use music you have the appropriate licenses to, or that are in the public domain.

The entire Synchedin catalogue is free to play in the background of streams, without causing any issues. This is because we have obtained all the correct permissions and licenses, meaning no DMCA issues for you!

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