Is it ok to livestream someone else’s game? A League of Legends controversy
League of Legends is one of the most watched video games on the livestreaming site Twitch.tv, with well over 100,000 viewers at any given time. One Twitch channel streams games played by Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, a LoL superstar reportedly worth close to $1 million to the esport. There is just one problem: The channel isn’t his.
The channel SpectateFaker has over 45,000 subscribers, but the person running itl has no affiliation with Faker. Instead, the channel uses LoL’s built in spectate mode to livestream Faker’s games whether he wants them to or not.
The primary issue with the SpectateFaker stream is the exclusivity deal between Faker and the streaming site Azubu. Faker’s personal stream is only broadcasted on Azubu, and the spectate stream on Twitch circumvents that deal.
As a result, Azubu sent a DMCA takedown notice to the owner of the SpectateFaker channel. The owner refused to take down the channel, saying that Riot Games’ terms of use for LoL states that no one other than the developer owns the rights to ownership of an account, effectively meaning that Azubu has no legal ground to stand on.
“I am streaming game assets … It’s really that simple”
The owner of the SpectateFaker channel made a thread on Reddit under the name StarLordLucien, discussing his reasons for refusing to take down the stream.
“Faker does not have any rights over the game assets,” he writes. “I am streaming game assets – the spectator client, not anything Faker or Azubu owns. It’s really that simple.”
He added, “I know some people will disagree with this and bring up ethics, but I think this whole issue is about a lot more than Faker. It’s about Riot not enforcing their own legal terms of service. … These are issues that will affect the future of the game and the spectator mode. All of this needs to be debated for the future of League of Legends and esports.”
StarLordLucien noted that he would remove the stream only if he received a DMCA request from Riot, saying, “If Riot does DMCA my stream that will be the end of it, I won’t counter them or try to make a new stream. But I won’t be listening to anyone else from Riot or on Reddit lecture to me about morals anymore.”
Screenshot via SpectateFaker/Twitch.tv
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