On July 28 the popular Twitch streamer XQc was banned from twitch after reportedly watching Olympic highlights.
XQc believes the Olympic highlights are what got him “live DMCA’d,” according to dotesports.com. The steamers shared on Twitter the he thought he was using the “necessary precautions “ and that he wasn’t expecting to be banned from Twitch for his actions.
XQc ban went into effect around 2:00 eastern time on July 28th and it’s not clear how long the pan is expected to last.
“Really didn’t expect it but I [could’ve] easily avoided this,” XQc said to dot esports. “Sorry for everyone involved, including the viewers. I’ll be better/smarter next time and follow guidelines more strictly.”
Building a bad history
This isn’t the firs time that XQc has been banned from Twitch or been disciplined for different behaviors on the website. StreamerBans, a website that tracks punishments given to streamers, reports that this is the fourth time that XQc has been banned from Twitch since StreamerBans started tracking suck activity in 2019. This is XQc first band of 2021, but in 2020 he was banned three times. However, one of those punishments was for just one day.
Still, with this being XQc fourth time facing punishment from Twict the repeated offenses could lead to this being a stuffer punishment than what a first or second time offender would face.
This could be the most serious ban that XQc faces from Twitch yet though. Streaming highlights of the Olympics would follow a highly restrictive approach that the Games have taken towards protecting their media rights partners, most notably NBC and their family of networks and streaming platforms in the United States.
XQc isn’t the first person to potentially face punishment for streaming the Olympics on social meda. Numerous social media accounts across the country have had action taken against them for post videos and sharing highlights on Instagram and Twitter.
Media Rights Deals
Ultimately, what the Olympics and NBC is trying to do is protect their content from being illegally streamed to viewers who aren’t paying for the content. This is a similar strategy that many of the professional sports leagues — including the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL — take to protect the integrity of their broadcast.
Fans however have been able to get around the difficulties with this by sharing streaming links online for the most popular games and fights on the sports calendar.
In a tweet, Kuri said that two of his friends had been banned for streaming in public areas near the 2022 Olympics. He continued to say that one streamer used a flyover from jets in a public park and the other was outside one of the Olympic stadiums. Finally, XQc said that the International Olympic Committing is “abusing DMCA on twitch” and that the team at Twitch support is not doing any to support one of their most popular streamers.
While similar bans have been distributed recently, some have even been banned for streaming near the Olympics’s like Kuri’s tweet suggests, this event has brought some serious discourse about the role of copyright in livestreaming.
One area in particular that copyright and streaming has a blurred line is with music. While the IOC is within their legal contractual rights to claim that streaming is harmful to their media rights deals and can get streams taken down, some question if the rules surrounding the copyright laws are outdated. Most copyright laws that are in place are focused on the DMCA, which was passed in 1998.
It remains to be seen how long XQc will be off of Twitch, lesson to be learned watch your surrounding when you are live.
