Facebook is cracking down on video piracy after receiving heavy criticism from content creators who say they too often see their videos copied and re-uploaded by other users.
"Publishers have told us that their videos are sometimes uploaded directly to Facebook without their permission,"
Facebook wrote in a Thursday blog post.
"This practice has been called 'freebooting,' and it’s not fair to those who work hard to create amazing videos. We want creators to get credit for the videos that they own."
Facebook said that from here on out, all video uploads will be checked by the website's Audible Magic system. Much like the popular song-identification app Shazam, that system uses audio fingerprinting technology to make sure the real copyright holder is the one uploading the video. If someone tries to freeboot the video — that is, copy and re-upload it under a different account — the system will recognize the attempted upload as a duplicate, and disallow it.
The world's largest social network also said that it's "making improvements to our existing procedures so that infringing content can be reported and removed more efficiently, and to keep repeat infringers off our service."
As tech website
Re/code reported, "Facebook’s response comes after video makers and distributors have grown increasingly vocal about pirated videos, which by one estimate accounted for more than 70 percent of Facebook’s most popular videos."
Facebook's piracy problem is highly similar to the one YouTube encountered early on. YouTube, however, has had a big head start on combating piracy, and it's been very successful. With audio fingerprinting technology at the forefront of its anti-piracy crusade, Facebook's approach to fixing the problem appears to be ripped right out of the YouTube playbook.
"This is just the beginning," Facebook itself admitted in the blog post. "In the long-term, our goal is to provide a comprehensive video management system that fits the needs of our partners. This will take time, but we’re working on it, and we’re committed."
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