Skip to main content

FACEBOOK DEVELOPING CONTENT ID SYSTEM TO FIGHT COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT

Also in licensing talks with major labels...

Facebook is in the process of building an content recognition system, a new report by the Financial Times has revealed.

The program will combat copyright infringement across the social network, automatically identifying and removing copyrighted material similarly to the Content ID system used by YouTube.

“In a recent snapshot search of 33 of today’s top songs, [the National Music Publisher’s Association] identified 887 videos using those songs with over 619 million views, which amounts to an average of nearly 700,000 views per video,” says NMPA president/CEO David Israelite in the article. “In reality, the scope of the problem is likely much greater because, due to privacy settings on Facebook, it’s almost impossible to gauge the true scale.”

Billboard also reports that Facebook are currently in licensing talks with major labels in order to begin paying artists with for their content.

"[Facebook] see the huge amount of traffic music content is responsible for on their platform and don’t want to be on the wrong end of an artist fight," a music industry source told Billboard. "They also see that there’s a potential opportunity to position themselves as friendly to content creators as opposed to YouTube, so they are working fast to get this right."

The source continues: "The reality for Facebook and YouTube is that more and more they are transitioning from tech platforms to media companies. And the more they look like media companies, the more they are going to have to act like them and respect creators and pay for content."

Facebook have yet to publicly speak out on the topic.