New German Laws Classify Unlicensed Twitch Streams As Pirate Broadcasts

A few years ago, Germany was all about privacy and liberty. What the hell happened?

While I'm not into video game streaming, I do find this direction disturbing. Germany has ruled that internet live streamers who can reach more than 500 people are in fact "pirate broadcasts" and are illegal unless they obtain proper (expensive) licensing and follow the same rules imposed for public TV and radio stations.

"In an attempt to enforce a level of control over the thriving, yet largely un-regulated industry, the Landesmedienanstalt has temporarily ruled that live-streaming requires a broadcasting licence, natively known as a Rundfunklizenz."
[link to esports.clickon.co (secure)]

That's certainly an interesting way to silence online discussion and dissent. At the moment the target seems to be popular "twitch" channels which are generally just video game streams, but it would seem to apply to internet radio and other live streams originating from Germany as well. I don't think it's even a question as to whether Twitch, YouTube and other mainstream streaming providers will willingly hand over any info they have on "unlicensed" streamers targeted by German officials under their blanket interpretation of the law.

Speaking of interpretation, it seems that regulations in Germany prevent the broadcast of any material "deemed harmful to young persons" before 10pm. Again, it doesn't take much imagination to think this might be interpreted to include many of the topics discussed by GLP'ers on a regular basis.

While this doesn't seem to apply to the EU in general at the moment, let alone the US, it does provide an example of how a tyrannical government can outlaw online discussion by simply expanding their interpretation of existing television and radio regulations to include independent alternative media sources and streaming.

When Twitch first announced the IRL channel for the platform, a lot of streamers were discussing this happening in the future. Some of the IRL channels can get into some pretty serious discussion. Then, once communities were added, it became clear that Twitch was becoming an interesting platform for "sharing." I'm a Twitch caster and I spend a LOT of time in various channels. It's moving far beyond a video game streaming platform.

While I'm not into video game streaming, I do find this direction disturbing. Germany has ruled that internet live streamers who can reach more than 500 people are in fact "pirate broadcasts" and are illegal unless they obtain proper (expensive) licensing and follow the same rules imposed for public TV and radio stations.

"In an attempt to enforce a level of control over the thriving, yet largely un-regulated industry, the Landesmedienanstalt has temporarily ruled that live-streaming requires a broadcasting licence, natively known as a Rundfunklizenz."
[link to esports.clickon.co (secure)]

That's certainly an interesting way to silence online discussion and dissent. At the moment the target seems to be popular "twitch" channels which are generally just video game streams, but it would seem to apply to internet radio and other live streams originating from Germany as well. I don't think it's even a question as to whether Twitch, YouTube and other mainstream streaming providers will willingly hand over any info they have on "unlicensed" streamers targeted by German officials under their blanket interpretation of the law.

Speaking of interpretation, it seems that regulations in Germany prevent the broadcast of any material "deemed harmful to young persons" before 10pm. Again, it doesn't take much imagination to think this might be interpreted to include many of the topics discussed by GLP'ers on a regular basis.

While this doesn't seem to apply to the EU in general at the moment, let alone the US, it does provide an example of how a tyrannical government can outlaw online discussion by simply expanding their interpretation of existing television and radio regulations to include independent alternative media sources and streaming.

I didn't read your link, but your post needs some clarification.

This regulation (it's not a law) is not new, it's at least ten years old. The difference: If you break a law, you can get a financial penalty or jail sentence, if you violate a regulation you get a fine (comparable to a parking ticket, but more expensive) but no jail sentence.

For broadcasting an internet radio you (funnily) don't need a broadcasting licence. If you can reach more than 500 listeners, you need to register. The number of actual users don't count here, if you have only 50 users but your provider can handle 1000 users, you have to register.

The intention behind this regulation is not censorship but child and youth protection. There is not much scope to deny the licence, it only can be denied if your broadcast intends to permanently break German law, e.g. by trying to recruit members for terrorist organisations.
It is prohibited in Germany to broadcast material that may be harmful to young persons before 22:00. Thus, if you stream a game that is rated 18+ before 22:00, you break the law.

There are several ways to circumvent the need for a broadcasting licence:
If you don't stream on a regular base, e.g. every Wednesday - no licence needed.
If you don't comment on your stream - no licence needed.
If you don't switch cameras (no cuts in he stream) - no licence needed.
If you record it (without streaming it live) and put it on YouTube - no licence needed.

There is also one passage in the regulation that is debatable. Since a viewer can go back to the start of the stream, even if it's running since an hour, it could be interpreted as "video on demand" that don't need a licence.

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I appreciate the additional info (also, to clarify I just reposted their headline, though I know it's inaccurate I wanted to make it easy to search to avoid double posting).

To me it seems ridiculous to demand that streamers pay for a license in the first place, ....

... and even more ridiculous to dictate what time of day they can stream. It's not like your audience are likely to all be in the same time zone, particularly if you're targeting an international audience, and frankly age restricted content controls should be implemented by the site itself, not by the government imposing timing restrictions on users.

Also, if it's not a game with an official rating, but contains content the government deems objectionable, would it come under the same restriction?

For instance, if I'm cursing up a storm at Nibirutards on a live stream where I'm cutting back and forth between a telescope camera and a webcam, would I not be subject to these regulations?

It wasn't meant as a personal attack against you. The article (I've read in the meantime) does not provide much information about quite complicated German telekomunication laws.



This is not a new regulation, it's from the time when the first private radio and TV stations came up in the 1980s: If you can reach a certain number of users, you have to apply for a licence. The regulation initially applied to internet radio stations, too, but was relaxed after a lawsuit, as I mentioned above. Thus I think, the same might happen here.



Does not really matter. As long as there might be German users, German laws apply. Of course the producer of the live stream can apply country restrictions à la "This video is not available in your country", then he could stream at any time.



If the producer of a game (or movie, ...) don't apply for a rating, it is automaticaly rated 18+.



If you live in Germany and you can reach more than 500 viewers and do it e.g. every Sunday and comment the live stream and switch between scope camera and webcam, you have to apply for a licence that btw. is € 1000 to € 2500 (not 10,000 as stated in the article). With 2 million users (as in the case of the gamers) and ad revenue this should not be the problem.
Can the licence be denied? - No.

If you live in Germany and you can reach more than 500 viewers and do it e.g. every Sunday and comment the live stream and switch between ISIS fighting, beheading of hostages and an imam trying to recruit new ISIS members, you have to apply for a licence, too.
Can the licence be denied? - Yes (but in that case it will most probably not your major problem).

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Germany is ground zero, for something very bad.
Who really does murkhell and all the other politicians there really act as front for?

Thank you Dr A

Yeah, well I'm not a big time streamer and I don't make any money from my webcasts, so basically this would prevent me from ever setting up a regularly scheduled webcast. Maybe it's just an American thing, but I find this kind of regulation absolutely abhorrent. I could understand it for the airwaves where a limited spectrum exists, but for online streaming it's absurd to me. I just hope the bureaucrats at the FCC in the US don't eventually decide this is a good model to follow.