Facebook has acquired a tech startup that it hopes will allow it to target users who share pirated content or share content without permission.
The company, Source3 which produces technology that recognise, organise and analyse branded intellectual property in user-generated content, recently raised $4 million in venture funding.
In a statement on the its website, the company states:
“We’re excited to bring our IP, trademark and copyright expertise to the team at Facebook and serve their global community of two billion people, who consume content, music, videos and other IP every day.”
Recode reports that Source3 will be integrated completely into Facebook and will not be operating as a standalone company.
Problems with pirated content
Coming up with an efficient solution to pirated content is likely to be high priority of Facebook. In April 2017, the social media giant announced the roll out of its Rights Manager, that would allow content creators to continue to make money when their videos are pirated.
The move followed a similar move by YouTube which allowed content creators to claim back a percentage of the money generated by content distributed without their permission.
The acquisition of Source3 seems to point towards an admission that Facebook’s own in-house efforts to tackle the problem have so far been unsatisfactory.
