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Streaming giants Twitch are reportedly being sued by Russia’s Rambler Media Group, and the ramifications could be huge… $3 billion USD huge.
Twitch could be in seriously hot water in the near future. The Amazon owned streaming giant has been taken to court by Russia’s Rambler Group (the third biggest internet company in the nation) after allegedly breaching digital distribution rights more than 36,000 times on their platform. And Rambler is demanding $2.8 billion of Twitch’s $3.79 billion empire in compensation.
The violation of digital distribution refers to Twitch’s illegal facilitation of Premier League football (soccer, if you insist) streams. In an attempt to one-up competitors with a serious coup, Rambler Group acquired exclusive rights to stream Premier League matches earlier this year. Yet they claim Twitch illegally ‘pirated’ their content over 36,000 times between August and November.
The Moscow City Court has ordered a temporary suspension of Premier League streams on Twitch until the case has been resolved – with a court date set for Friday (Dec 20th) – but they’re clearly missing the point. Last week we wrote a story debating whether congress is tech savvy enough to create and enforce contemporary law, and this latest example underlines our consensus completely.
Everyone knows in this day and age (or so I thought) that streaming platforms are intrinsically based on the principle of handing control to the users. How exactly are Twitch supposed to enforce a ban on one specific type of content when the platform is playing host to 15 million users every day? Unsurprisingly, Twitch were quick to raise the same question.
Defence lawyer Julianna Tabstaeva described Rambler’s case as ‘unfounded’ and stressed that the platform ‘only provides users with access and is unable to change the content posted by users or track possible violations’. Nevertheless, the court have insisted, and ban will persist. I know, my brain hurts too.
While Twitch is primarily a video-game streaming service, the platform hosts a variety of other content including sport. Now, you can’t just whack up a HD stream of a Premier League game from NBC, Sky Sports, BT Sport, or Amazon Prime without getting flagged by moderators. The issue at hand is that people will go to serious lengths to disguise and or watch illegal streams. Remember that guy that hosted a free viewing of KSI v Logan Paul II in the reflection of his sunglasses last month? I rest my case – maybe Rambler Group should too.
