Bloomberg reports that Facebook is offering the Music Industry millions of royalty fees to protect its 2 billion monthly users from copyright violation. The social network is negotiating deals with record labels and publishers to retain the rights to music featured in videos uploaded by users and page owners. Bloomberg further states that former Youtube executive Tamara Hrivnak has been leading the discussions with music publishers for several months now.
A win-win situation
Perhaps one of the pressing concerns regarding this matter pertains to the social network's obligation to remove videos that infringe copyright law.
Until now, copyright holders continue to work with Facebook to get unauthorized content taken down. The reason being the site's liability covers all the material and content on its platform, especially those it does not have the rights to.
With this new plan, the music industry would be paid accordingly for the rights to music that Facebook users are posting. In addition, it would make a significant difference in the relentless effort to monitor and coordinate every single time a post has a copyright violation. Naturally, Facebook sees a greater advantage. Should this deal work out, it would avoid upsetting users, partners, and advertisers whose posts are taken down. Bloomberg adds that the goal of both entities is to build a tool that will flag offending material.
However, it could take as much as two years to complete. For now, buying the rights is a good place to start.
Future plans and competition
Just like Google, Facebook also seeks to build a system for detecting unauthorized and unwanted material. Google's Content ID system works to identify videos with copyrighted content, and the latter firm hopes to come up with the same innovation.
If this materializes, the social network would be in direct rivalry with Youtube as the internet's top video hub. Further, it could be positioned as a streaming music contender.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been open about the company's grandest vision for online video. The goal actually goes beyond appeasing copyright holders regarding user-generated videos.
The success of this venture could easily snatch video advertising fees away from Youtube. In addition, securing the copyrights could draw more users for longer periods of time. Such advantage could put them in competition with every other form of online media on the web. Although it is too early to say, it is likely that Facebook will persist to turn its vision into reality.
