During the last few days the Internet has been buzzing with comments about Audible Magic as a service provider to Twitch.tv. Some of these comments contain rumors or misinformation, so we’ll mention a few things in this post to raise the level of information out there.
What happened?
Twitch turned on a new feature that aids its site in protecting copyright owners. When Twitch users’ VOD videos contain copyrighted media content that has been flagged by the copyright owner as a “do not share” item, Twitch responds with an action to mask a portion of audio.
What’s Audible Magic’s part in this?
Twitch contracted Audible Magic to provide a content matching service. Twitch provides Audible Magic a sample of audio content and Audible Magic reports if a match is found in a database of submitted works. Matches, plus the content owner’s specified business rules, are reported to Twitch, and Twitch handles all actions from there. Audible Magic performs no blocking of content. Audible Magic is simply an information provider.
What’s in Audible Magic’s database?
Audio and video media copyright owners or their licensed agents submit “fingerprints” of media works, enabling those works to be identified by Audible Magic matching services. The copyright owners also submit business rules to associate with those works. If a copyright owner does not want their work shared freely on individual social media sites, they provide business rules specifying that. Copyright owners can also submit “allow” rules by title. Each month, Audible Magic receives on average 250,000 new media titles, including each title’s business rules, submitted by copyright owners to Audible Magic’s database.
Does Audible Magic work for the copyright holders?
Audible Magic receives no revenue from any media copyright owner for registering content in its database or for providing a matching service. Our paying customers are companies, like Twitch, that are looking for matching services to automate a part of their process or workflow.
What if Audible Magic incorrectly reports a match?
We believe Audible Magic offers the most highly trusted matching service available. We treat any match error as a bug, and we aggressively pursue prompt resolution of all bugs. We’re very serious about getting it right.
What’s next?
Audible Magic is devoted to continual improvement of its products and services. We work closely with our clients and partners to ensure we offer the best possible solutions. We also proactively evolve with our customers and their user’s needs to improve solution offerings. We are always open to feedback about how our services can be enhanced or what we can do to help our customers deliver great products.