Metallica’s livestream performance Friday night on the TwitchGaming channel was muted by the platform in what some on social media are chalking up to a bit of copyright karma.
The band was playing as part of BlizzCon when the audio was suddenly replaced by royalty-free music, purportedly to avoid exposing Twitch to DCMA complaints.
“Metallica not being able to play their own music live because of DCMA that came about in large part due to Metallica’s advocacy of it is a hell of a full circle,” read one tweet.
The DCMA – Digital Millennium Copyright Act – is a 1998 U.S. law that was created to protect copyrighted content online. Metallica relied upon the DCMA in 2000 to successful sue file-sharing service Napster over its distribution of the band’s music.
Although the DCMA predates Metallica’s case by two years, some who saw the band silenced during the TwitchGaming stream gleefully shared their thoughts on social media.
“Metallica v Napster is a big reason for internet copyright enforcement being the way it is now so they 100% deserve this lmao,” one person tweeted.
Another tweet declared: “Metallica, of all bands, getting stomped by copyright s**t is *LITERALLY THE BEST*”
Some reactions were more direct. “Metallica is specifically one of the bands that helped create this DMCA hellscape we all live in,” read one. “Rot in your own muted silence, f**kers.”