How to appeal a DMCA strike on Twitch

It can be challenging to figure out how to submit an appeal for a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) strike on Twitch. There have been many changes and updates to the DMCA policy for Twitch and just googling it can lead you to many different sites.

Suppose, for example, you have received a DMCA strike and believe it’s a mistake since your video qualifies as fair use under U.S. law or it was a misidentification. In that case, you can send a counter-notification, which is essentially an appeal but is treated differently. You can view regular appeals in Twitch’s Appeal portal, but DMCA strikes are appealed independently and you can’t view them as they are processed.

We recommend filing counter-notifications as soon as you believe you’ve received a mistaken DMCA strike. Twitch may terminate your account if you receive three strikes.

How to submit a counter-notification to Twitch

You must follow these instructions exactly if you want to send a counter-notification in response to a DMCA strike about recorded content, a livestream, or something else:

1. Start an email to dmca@twitch.tv
2. Use the following statement exactly as written and replace “(enter your full name)” with your full name. This is the wording Twitch asks all counter-notifications to use:
   • “I, (enter your full name) wish to state that:
   • I consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the judicial district in which my address is located, or if my address is outside of the United States, the judicial district in which Twitch may be found, and will accept service of process from the claimant.
   • I swear, under penalty of perjury, that I have a good faith belief that the material identified in the notification was identified, removed, and/or disabled due to a mistake or misidentification.”

3. Finally, explain why you believe there was a mistake or misidentification.
4. Under all of that, add the following:
   1. The URL(s) where the material subject to the notification of claimed infringement first appeared before it was removed or blocked.
   2. The name of the infringement claimant who submitted the claim.
   3. The name of your Twitch channel (for example, twitch.tv/Username).
   4. Your full legal name.
   5. Your full email address.
   6. Your full postal address (Street, Unit #, State, Mailing/Zip Code, Country).
   7. Your complete phone number, including the International Code (If you are from the U.S., your International Code is 1).
5. Keep in mind that failure to provide this information could result in Twitch being unable to take action in response to your counter-notification.

From there, you must wait for Twitch to respond to your counter-notification. Twitch may take up to a few months to respond to your appeal. It is important to remember that DMCA claims expire over time. Even though Twitch hasn’t specified how long each may take, a DMCA strike may eventually just disappear.

Do your research if you are unsure whether your use is fair use of the copyrighted material. Anytime you submit a counter-notification, you are saying that you are willing to be sued over the material, and if you’re in the wrong, that could be more trouble than it’s worth.