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There appears to be an increase problem by community media sites (such as YouTube & Twitch.tv) which use media recognition heuristics to detect media that might be copyright infringement & as a result, those videos may end up getting muted or restricted in one form or another & in some cases, make those videos completely useless.  This is a method that plagues those who simply wish to be a part of the online community & a BIG problem for those in the gaming community.

This problem has hit me a few times in my videos on YouTube

• One video got flagged for use of a song used in the opening movie of the game The Guided Fate Paradox by Lantis Company, Limited, where this song was a part of the game soundtrack & not taken into account when it was flagged.  The video was force-monetized (through video ads) as a result of this game, but I allowed it considering I didn't want to remove the video being a part of a set of videos that's meant to be a running series of the cutscenes for the game.

• Once in a video where I was streaming health problems caused by indoor drug use at some condos I lived at, where a music video was playing from first Facebook, then from YouTube & that video got hit with a copyright claim from WMG on that song not once, but twice, regardless of the fact that audio from that music video was poor quality through my laptop microphone from my main computer & honestly surprising that it could be recognized despite the poor quality.  The video used in a non-profit fight for non-smokers rights was restricted as unviewable in some countries, where I made an edit of the video with the music removed, with annotations to point out the copyright claim & how the fact that audio needing to be removed from it hindered my non-profit fight for those rights, later the restriction being lowered to simple forced-monetization of the video (through video ads) for their organization.

Furthermore if you search for various songs on unofficial channels on YouTube, you'll find a number of them have been muted due to those songs, even if they were a part of a games soundtrack, which is apparently something that is NEVER taken into account in those copyright claims.

This has happened a number of time on Twitch as well:

• Multiple videos got muted from streams of Dragon Ball XenoVerse for use of the music that is played during the opening movie, despite the fact that the music in the video is a part of the games soundtrack (and was actually written for the Dragon Ball series in Japan).

• Multiple videos have gotten muted due to media misdetections in Dragon Ball XenoVerse; regardless of appeals being filed, the videos never get unmuted...

• Gameplay videos from KickBeat have been muted before, not surprising given it's copyrighted music, but the fact that that music was a part of the game's soundtrack should have been considered before muting the video.

• Gameplay videos from Melody's Escape got muted.  This is perhaps more understandable since the game itself don't have a soundtrack & you have to use your own MP3s, however still a disappointment Twitch is so quick to ruin your archived videos at the drop of a hat.

• Gameplay videos from Symphony got muted.  This is yet another game that mixes genres like KickBeat, however again perhaps understandable since it's another rhythm game that doesn't have it's own soundtrack & you have to use your own MP3s.

• Sound effects in Salt have been misdetected as a track from a nature sounds CD.

If you do a search for any rhythm game on Twitch, you are likely going to find every single one of them muted & pointless to even view as far as games in the rhythm genre go.  I have one friend in particular that used to complain to me about this in games such as Audiosurf & osu.

Furthermore there are a good number of videos that have been muted due to music being played in the background (many of them allowing song requests through various chat bots).  While I can't say I disagree with the decision to mute video with music that is not a part of that game, I will say that these make those videos very much pointless to view, especially when it comes to the streaming responding to viewers verbally (maybe not so much if they are responding through Twitch chat via text)

This section last updated 9/3/2017

YouTube takes the matter to the extreme where copyright notices stack on your account & sooner or later will be terminated if they build to a certain point.  Twitch may not stack copyright violations like YouTube does (as far as I know), but the media-recognition methods are as a preventative measure to avoid copyright claims, which unfortunately make Twitch look trigger-happy when it comes to muting your videos & unfortunately you won't even know it until you go over archived/highlighted videos; this unfortunately makes exportation of videos that have already been muted completely useless...

As far as game streaming is concerned, rhythm games will always be hit by this regardless of whether what gets you hit by a copyright claim/muted video is a part of the game's soundtrack or not.  Furthermore, any game that has a form of virtual radio (such as games in the Grand Theft Auto, Saints Row & APB series) are likely to get hit by them also, even if it's from a car passing by your character & not from your own car in the game.  Taking this a step further, a good amount of games use copyrighted music (such as games in the Need for Speed, WWE Smackdown & Tony Hawk Pro Skating series) which are almost certain to get flagged if you haven't shut off music first.  The only plus side to sites that are going to flag your videos in this way is that they seem to leave live streams alone, but anything left after a stream (archived streams) or uploaded videos are always prone to being vandalized by these sites.

So the question at this point is should community media sites be allowed to censor our videos without being required to even notify us of it or giving us the ability to dispute the allegations of it beforehand (even if they do give us the option to dispute the claim afterwards, you may not notice it if they don't bother to contact you about it).  I say no.  As far as I'm concerned, this is a form of discrimination, particularly if the media that would flag a video is a part of the soundtrack for that game.  If somebody is purposely reposting an official music video or it's obvious they're using the music in their own video, then I can understand it, but if it's in the background a video, a part of a game's soundtrack or an unintentional inclusion in their video that companies choose to manipulate that coincidence (as far as I'm concerned) only to be malicious, then my claim of those sites actions is it's a violation of our rights, particularly if your account gets terminated over it.  For sites that use this type of discrimination, they need to consider the usage of the media as to whether it was intentionally put in there & whether there's a reason why it should be in the video (such as a part of a game's soundtrack) before they decide to penalize their users for it being in their videos.

My claim of what should be done to battle this type of discrimination from community media sites is that we should make it obvious that we are not happy with it & make it known by publicly stating it, as well as boycotting certain features of those sites until they change their methods & start considering whether usage of such content is intentional or should be allowed based on content of the objective of the video (such as game soundtrack).

• In the case of YouTube, I would suggest users make it known why a video got flagged by a copyright claim and/or muted put putting that information into the description of the video, rather than just deleting it.  YouTube may have the option to dispute those claims, however they limit your options in filing the dispute & don't really give you an option to supply additional information, so I don't see much reason in taking it that route where it's likely to be denied anyways.

• In the case of Twitch, I would suggest boycotting the use of Past Broadcasts, only to be used in the case of Highlights, which hopefully won't be subjected to getting muted as well...if you're careful.

I have already started doing both of these & in one case, it lowered the restrictions on a video on YouTube where removal of that content would cause diminished results in a non-profit stance for non-smokers rights.  If these organizations want to make claims against our videos, then make it known by the public that's the case & let the comments on those videos shame those organizations when the music had a reason to be in the video in the first place.

As of 7/11/2016, I will be keeping a list of videos that have been muted for whatever reason to give an idea of how bad this problem is; videos listed before this date are old situations that I still have logs on from YouTube:

 Last updated 8/28/2019

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