Facebook Details New Effort To Stop Video Piracy

Facebook is ramping up its video efforts, and part of any effort is adequate management — in the case of videos, it's rights management. Today in a statement, the social network said that some of its content partners have complained of third-party users swiping their videos and uploading them without permission, among other things. This has prompted Facebook to take a look at its rights management for videos and ways it can be improved. That work has been ongoing, and leads to today's statement: the social network says that it has established the foundation of that rights management, and it'll be using audio fingerprinting to help put the squeeze on unauthorized video uploading, as well as video matching technology and more.

Anything uploaded to the Internet is, in the broadest sense, completely fair game. That's not to say that it's okay to steal others' content, only that it is so common that trying to prevent it can become an endless battle. Thanks to more advanced technology, though, there are ways of spotting infringing content and stripping it away.

Says Facebook, it will run videos through the Audible Magic system, which will use the audio to help identify videos that have been uploaded by those other than the copyright holder.

In addition, Facebook says it has added a way for content owners to flag their content that has been uploaded on the network by others without permission, allowing it to review the items, and if necessary take it down. Likewise, the social network will be cracking down on repeat offenders, using IP addresses to keep tabs on those who keep violating the rules. Do it too many times and you'll be booted off the social network.

None of that is quite enough, though, and so it is working with Audible Magic to enhance that technology in relation to how it works on Facebook. The social network says it will also be enhancing existing procedures to make them more effective. Some creators, as well, will be getting video matching technology tools to hunt down content on Facebook pages and accounts. Any videos found by the technology can then be flagged for removal.

Beta testing of the video matching tech will start soon with a small number of unspecified partners. Facebook goes on to tease that this is "just the beginning".

SOURCE: Facebook