Valve clarifies broadcasting rules DotaTV
Valve explained who can broadcast the matches of the Dota Pro Circuit and the rules that must be followed. Anyone can stream games in a non-commercial way.
In the earlier weeks, there are been several conflicts between tournament organizers and individual streamers, regarding the video policy during Valve’s sponsored events.
The issues culminated in the past days with StarLadder i-League Invitational Season 3 Minor as many streams were shut down using DMCA notices.
Valve cares about the community and knows that many cool projects, such as Dotabuff, DatDota, independent broadcast studios, and unique streamers, are born only thanks to the freedom provided by the Dota 2 environment.
Valve respects the tournament organizers and their professional work, but at the same time it is obvious that the community has a big role in the success of the game.
“Broadly speaking, we see two groups of fans (with some degree of overlap). Some fans follow competitive play – they have favorite teams, players, casters, tournaments — and want to consume content directly from tournament organizers who are producing events.
Other fans have strong affinities to specific personalities, and they watch them play games, talk about games, and cast a variety of professional, amateur, and pub games. We want to make sure that there is content available that serves both groups of customers.”
Valve already had a general video policy, but recognized that it is imperative to put up boundaries and specific rules.
Anyone can broadcast a match from DotaTV.
The content must not be commercialized with advertising, branding overlays, and sponsorship.
Streamers can't use the official broadcast’s content such as caster audio, camerawork, overlays, interstitial content, etc.
Studios can’t broadcast each other’s events.
The rules help, but aren’t perfect as there are many grey areas that could be exploited - but we finally understand what people can do.
Finally, Valve doesn’t talk directly about donations and Twitch subscriptions, so we believe that those are 100% legit for any individual streamer.
Source and header image: Valve
