Facebook Cracks Down on Stolen Videos

Facebook finally appears to be cracking down on people who steal other creators’ videos. The company announced a new tool called Rights Manager at its F8 Developers Conference in San Francisco that will allow content owners to automatically flag for removal any videos that appear on the platform that are identical to their own. The feature is similar to the ContentID system that has been in place on YouTube for several years.

Facebook has faced the ire of video creators on YouTube for more than a year due to the practice of “freebooting,” or stealing content on YouTube without permission and posting it on Facebook. Video creators argued that Facebook’s previous copyright-flagging system was too slow. Now, as the tech giant begins to court media companies and celebrities to use its video products, it’s getting serious about copyright protection. In addition to flagging pre-recorded video, Rights Manager will be able to detect when a live stream is using rights-protected material and kill the broadcast.