YouTube, for all its amazing qualities, has found itself in a lot of hot water over the years. True, it is a site where you can watch any number of videos, from official music videos of your favorite band, to kids making up dance routines at home, to work out videos that you can do in your own bedroom. Millions of people use the site for all these reasons, and more. But with all this content being viewed by all these people, legal issues are bound to pop up. The same goes for another social media giant; Facebook has recently been called out for their poor policing of copyright infringement.
There have been many cases against YouTube, most notably by musicians and producers. Their main complaint is this: when people post videos of their songs without their permission, their copyright is being infringed. Not only that, but the artists lose out on the royalties they should be paid for the enjoyment of their music. With so many people posting videos every hour, YouTube struggled with this. To combat the rampant infringement, the site came up with a Content ID program. According to Google, this program works as follows: videos that are uploaded to YouTube are scanned against a database of files that have been submitted by content owners, who then get to decide what happens when content in a video on YouTube matches a work they own. Then, a Content ID claim is created. The copyright owners can then choose what to do with the infringing video. They can either mute the audio that accompanies the video, block the video from being viewed altogether, track the viewing statistics, or run ads with the video in an effort to get some of the money they are owed.
This program has allowed YouTube to maintain its good relationships with artists, as it ensures that all rights are protected. In an effort to do the same, Facebook is now building a similar tool. This is very important for the social media giant, who has more users and more views on content than YouTube does. Not only that, but it has users who can set their own privacy settings, something that needs to be considered when they determine how best to police the site. As of now, artists are not happy with the site, as mass infringement is happening when users post videos on their pages.
This is an excellent move on Facebook’s part. Not only will it strengthen the relationships it has in the music industry, but it is setting a good standard that it will not tolerate infringement. In a world where it is so easy to download and upload pirated material, it is especially important to see such a key figure take a step to protect IP rights.
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