German authorities label twitch streaming as broadcast service, requires fee

[zMeul]

sources:

• http://www.die-medienanstalten.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/kommission-fuer-zulassung-und-aufsicht/detailansicht/article/zak-pressemitteilung-072017-zak-beanstandet-verbreitung-des-lets-play-angebots-pietsmiettv.html
• https://www.wired.de/collection/life/landesmedienanstalten-pietsmiet-zak-rundfunkzulassung-rundfunkstaatsvertrag
• http://www.shooter-szene.de/diverses/pietsmiettv-neue-informationen-der-landesmedienanstalten-zu-twitch-kanaelen.html
• https://www.dwdl.de/nachrichten/60682/zak_beanstandet_letsplayangebot_pietsmiettv/
• https://www.golem.de/news/let-s-play-medienanstalten-drohen-mit-einstellung-von-piet-smiet-tv-1703-126868.html

if you live in Germany, you should sit down; if you live anywhere else ... grab some popcorn

 

as summarized in this reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Twitch/comments/61als9/important_information_for_german_livestreamers_a/

Quote

Due to our somewhat outdated laws and guidelines concerning anything technology related, the Landesmedienanstalt has temporarily ruled that live-streaming requires a Rundfunklizenz (broadcasting license), which costs between 1000€ and 10000€, depending on audience size and other factors.

If this wasn't troubling enough, there are other implications: If live-streaming has to abide by the same guidelines and regulations as television does in Germany, then you will no longer be allowed to stream violent and other Jugendgefährdende material (material harmful to young persons) before 10pm. To ensure that this doesn't happen, you would furthermore have to acquire the services of a Jugendschutzbeauftragten (youth protection commissioner?) who ensures that you do follow all the regulations that are in place.

If you didn't follow these rules and continued to broadcast without license, you'd effectively be a pirate station, which is a criminal offense.

I however wasn't able to find out what the actual punishment would be, pirate stations are so uncommon that even in the TV and radio field there are next to no rulings, let alone about things on the internet.
The Landesmedienanstalt has also stated that the guidelines are in need of an update, as cases like this weren't considered when they were originally written, meaning that this ruling might be changed in the future.
Basically, they have to rule this way at the moment, because they can't afford to set a precedent which would allow TV and radio stations to later ditch paying for their own Rundfunklizenz while pointing at this ruling.
However, until that happens, this ruling is absolutely legal, as they are following the current word of the law.

 

yep .. you heard it right - twitch streaming in Germany is considered to be a "programmed" broadcast that requires a broadcasting licence between 1k and 10k EUROs 

ZAK, Commission for Admission and Supervision, ruled this way because the laws do not cover internet streaming and it's not their role to modify the law .......

 

ZAK, Die Kommission für Zulassung und Aufsicht, is a supervisory authority for private radio and TV - the 14 members of this commision are legal representatives of the state media institutes

[TeeTwo]

Aint that interesting. Sounds like we should expect that several german streamers will stop streaming for the time being, or dish out alot of money.

 

Edit: Might be so that the responsibility falls in the hands of Twitch themselfs.

[SaladFingers]

Germany, what the actual hell???

 

Older generation just needs to go. Their lack of understanding of how technology works and their need to keep everything under tight control makes hardly any sense in the tech world.

[The Benjamins]

8 minutes ago, TeeTwo said:

Aint that interesting. Sounds like we should expect that several german streamers will stop streaming for the time being, or dish out alot of money.

it hurts "small" time streamers mostly. the already established that can live off streaming should be able to buy the license (assuming it is around the 1000) but the people that do it for fun with under 100 viewer are getting the shit end of the stick.

[Bananasplit_00]

oh wow. rest in peperonis Joshino and any other german stremers lol

[VerticalDiscussions]

Its funny, but really sad too.

[paddy-stone]

WTF, that's insane.

[Urishima]

2 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

WTF, that's insane.

Welcome to Germany. The stick is lodged firmly inside our collective asses and can not be removed.

[Okjoek]

8 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

oh wow. rest in peperonis Joshino and any other german stremers lol

Didn't know Joshino was a streamer, I just had him subbed on youtube for his Planetside 2 update reviews.

 

This sounds really shitty.

 

I hope I don't end up like these people when I get old where I have no understanding of the technology that comes out after I'm 30-40 years old... If I make it that far.

 

Some kind of technocratic government would be cool.

[paddy-stone]

Just now, Urishima said:

Welcome to Germany. The stick is lodged firmly inside our collective asses and can not be removed.

I feel ya. Live in the UK, so sticks in their asses are regular thing here too.. I literally hate my government and the stupid things they have done.

[Bananasplit_00]

Just now, Okjoek said:

Didn't know Joshino was a streamer, I just had him subbed on youtube for his Planetside 2 update reviews.

 

This sounds really shitty.

 

I hope I don't end up like these people when I get old where I have no understanding of the technology that comes out after I'm 30-40 years old... If I make it that far.

 

Some kind of technocratic government would be cool.

he strems Paladins quite a bit, i dont like his content anymore though. he used to be pretty cool but after OB44 or something his quality went out the window lol

[AlwaysFSX]

You dumb motherfuckers.

[AlexGoesHigh]

This is just depressing...

 

 

[AresKrieger]

The failings of government are quite ubiquitous, red tape and rigid laws lead to stupidity such as this and Germany has embraced bureaucracy to an higher degree than most so its not that surprising that they have situations like this one.

[Evann]

You are missing something, as a german - as i understood it, the channel needs atleast a constant viewercount of 500 or more and the stream has to be scheduled. If its neither of those you can stream without paying anything.

[Tam3n]

lol, but I bet everyone in Germany can continue twitch streaming just fine.

[SaladFingers]

18 minutes ago, Evann said:

You are missing something, as a german - as i understood it, the channel needs atleast a constant viewercount of 500 or more and the stream has to be scheduled. If its neither of those you can stream without paying anything.

Hahaha... and who is going to test this? Where's the proof? A number Twitch reports? And do they have someone checking each person's every stream? Do they check each and every random streaming website made by random dudes? Why is this world moving towards laws based on data coming from third party, random websites made by random dudes?

 

This whole thing reminds me of the US requiring facebook account details for immigrants. The illiteracy that comes together with these laws is simply mindblowing. These people need to be educated on how technology works, and especially how websites are created and maintained. Old grumps should not govern anymore.

[bigneo]

3 minutes ago, SaladFingers said:

Old grumps should not govern anymore.

 

But they are experienced af [long pause] not.

 

This is just sad. They'll do anything to tax people on earnings even if it's not logical... I hope other countries will not follow this German trick.

[Nicnac]

Germany being ridiculous again. As if GEMA wasn't bad enough...

[SaladFingers]

German people need to kill this before it becomes a thing. Not that I trust they will move a finger about it though..

[ThisFuzz]

23 minutes ago, Evann said:

You are missing something, as a german - as i understood it, the channel needs atleast a constant viewercount of 500 or more and the stream has to be scheduled. If its neither of those you can stream without paying anything.

 

No. Every Streamer has the possibility for more as 500 Viewer. That´s enough. You have to pay. Remember the GEZ. You have to pay the GEZ just because your home has a internet connection. Use it or not, you have to pay.

And not only YouTube or Twitch have this Problem: Every Site (NEWS, Sites from Blogger etc.) with a Video could fall under the new regulation.

AND the EU is working on a Law... Yeah... Every EU Country would fall under this Shit. (sorry)

[Napper198]

just to clarify some things based on the fact that I just spend an hour reading the beginnig of that stupid law it's based on.

 

You are a broadcaster when:

• you have potentially 500 or more viewers (so everyone)
• you have a scedule (WAN show and Lukes stream would apply)
• you provide some sort of "editorial or journalistic content" (everything that is not just a silent game walkthrough)
• you have multiple parts to your stream (i.e. a pre-stream talk and playing a game later)
• your content is directly streamed and not on-demand (direct uploads are fine, streams are not)
• you have some sort of advertisement (product placement, shout outs, whatever)

this would apply to any other direct streaming like Youtube live, Facebook Live, Periscope, Ustream, Twitter live, ...

 

However this rule would not apply when:

• your business is not located in Germany (business in France, broadcast from Germany, in german)
• your Stream is not available in Germany (business in and broadcast from Germany in german, but not viewable from Germany)
• your content is pre-paid (stream can only be viewed if you pay per stream, a subscription is not ok)

but yeah, this is the shit I have to deal with.

pdf of current law as of 2016

[LAwLz]

To everyone calling this stupid, yes it is. But it's not like Germany today decided that "hey, we should start requiring a license fee to stream on Twitch!". It's that someone went "oh fuck, when did not make an exception for Twitch in our old law, so as it is written right now we need to follow it until it gets rewritten".

They can't just ignore the law because it is the same one which makes it illegal for someone to set up a pirate TV station and just broadcast HBO shows for example.

[Napper198]

5 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

To everyone calling this stupid, yes it is. But it's not like Germany today decided that "hey, we should start requiring a license fee to stream on Twitch!". It's that someone went "oh fuck, when did not make an exception for Twitch in our old law, so as it is written right now we need to follow it until it gets rewritten".

They can't just ignore the law because it is the same one which makes it illegal for someone to set up a pirate TV station and just broadcast HBO shows for example.

I just looked it up, the inclusion of digital broadcasts like IPTV or twitch was added 19. December 2006 so we had 10 years to prepare

 

source

[tlink]

1 minute ago, Napper198 said:

I just looked it up, the inclusion of digital broadcasts like IPTV or twitch was added 19. December 2006 so we had 10 years to prepare

 

source

that was probably more because tv stations started to use internet streaming their channels via their webpage. twitch and live streaming for common folks wasn't really that big of a thing. imagine trying to encode and play a game over the shitty internet connections at the time on the hardware at the time.