Man, as if the DMCA strikes targeting streams on Twitch over in-game background music or sound effects weren't disastrous enough, there's an upcoming bill in the US that makes streaming copyrighted material a felony which can spell a serious trouble for streamers and I get a feeling that this applies to other sites as well that offer the streaming feature.
Many games make use of professional sound effects although it seems that professional game developers may have to make such investments for professional use. I don't know if this seems ridiculous or not for Twitch to issue DMCA strikes over sound effects in games but to streamers, this seems unacceptable. Licensed music may seem like a different story as streamers don't have the rights to use it in their own gaming stream or something. I guess that permissions are needed for making a professional stream with such music included and that's the case with many professional Virtual YouTubers who are part of whatever company that specializes in content creation. Of course, those companies have the responsibility to obtain permission from game developers so that the professional content creators have the rights to make a stream like that. What about the professional YouTubers then? Do they need a similar permission as well?
One risky workaround will be to swap some sound effects with a mod but I suppose that's not the point. One of the AAA games, Cyberpunk 2077, has a Streamer Mode option in which you can make a stream of the game safely without involving licensed music. Unfortunately, the same option also reduces whatever that seems inappropriate to Twitch website when turned on so it draws mixed opinions from gaming streamers.
Also, when it comes to making a livestream of licensed console games using the console's streaming tool that comes with it, there's a chance that something like Streamer Mode is already there as part of the tool as if games like Cyberpunk 2077 will need to corporate with that tool or something in which turning on Streamer Mode unlocks access to that tool. It's a safer but questionable way. What's more questionable is the licensed rhythm games on consoles in which when people see the archived stream videos done using the console's livestream tool, the licensed music is completely absent. It's ridiculous to blame the developers or console manufacturers when that happens. It's also questionable to get around such absence by using some other streaming tool.
To the content creators like ReviewtechUSA, the upcoming bill like that is comparable to the SO** bill way back in 2011 when it was heavily opposed that it was scrapped. Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fight For The Future, Access Now, etc. are already concerned about the Felony Streaming bill like it can be a disaster for the streamers' future if passed.
