Video game streaming: how poor licensing undermines creators*

Abstract

This article tackles the phenomenon of video game streaming amidst a regulatory shift in the European Union towards the DSM Directive framework. The article offers a new perspective on a specific and economically significant industry fuelled by the growing exploitation of copyright-protected content amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic and global lockdowns. European scholars have previously studied video game streaming, however, this article offers a new approach focused on the licensing aspects. The article, thus, presents an attempt to capture the unique characteristics of the European digital market framed by the video game industry. The article discusses three separate topics, Article 17 of the DSM Directive, authorization practices, and the impacts of the DSM Directive framework on the video game streaming industry. First, the article analyses the legal shift and its implications on the video game streaming industry. Secondly, it seeks to identify broader tendencies in the video game streaming industry and particularly licensing practices. Finally, it analyses the position of video game streamers and possible room for improvement. The presented conclusions focus predominantly on identified licensing insufficiencies in the video game industry that put creators in a vulnerable position. Article 17 of the DSM Directive, subsequently, could bring about improvements to licence terms due to a shift in enforcement consequences from take-down to stay-down.