Skip to main content

Stealing content on Facebook could get harder with the acquisition of Source3

Object recognition software can power anything from organizing photo albums to determining a dish’s recipe from a single photo but the technology could soon prevent piracy on Facebook and maybe even generate different revenue streams for content creators. On Monday, Facebook acquired Source3, software that recognizes intellectual property in order to prevent its theft.

Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed. The Source3 technology — and at least part of the startup’s staff — will become part of Facebook’s New York office, ceasing to operate separately as Source3.

Recommended Videos

Source3 uses object-recognition technology and a reference database to flag content. The system recognizes both copyrighted material, such as videos and trademarks. That means along with preventing piracy, the program could potentially notify businesses when branded items pop up in an original video.

“At Source3, we set out to recognize, organize and analyze branded intellectual property in user-generated content, and we are proud to have identified products across a variety of areas including sports, music, entertainment and fashion,” the announcement from Source3 reads. “Along the way, we built an end-to-end platform to manage online IP and establish relationships with brands …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.”

While it is unclear how Source3’s existing content will be integrated into Facebook with the acquisition, enhancing the Rights Manager is a good guess. The system, launched two years ago, allows videographers to detect and remove videos shared on Facebook without permission — or, instead of removing the video, take all the advertising revenue from the stolen work. An update earlier this year allowed users to set up the removal automatically.

The platform’s ability to recognize individual brands could also open up potential beyond just preventing the theft of intellectual property. If the program can recognize a brand’s products inside a video, the software could allow content creators to earn revenue through sponsorships such as using a specific product inside a video, TechChrunch suggests. Object recognition could also help Facebook’s advertising system to select similar products to those used in the video.

Earlier this year, Facebook announced the development of an app dedicated entirely to video creators. Video is becoming an increasingly popular across social networks and the web and while Facebook boasts one of the largest audiences, earning money from a video is less straightforward than with platforms like YouTube.

Hillary K. Grigonis
Hillary never planned on becoming a photographer—and then she was handed a camera at her first writing job and she's been…
Bluesky finally adds a feature many had been waiting for
A blue sky with clouds.

Bluesky has been making a lot of progress in recent months by simplifying the process to sign up while at the same time rolling out a steady stream of new features.

As part of those continuing efforts, the social media app has just announced that users can now send direct messages (DMs).

Read more
Reddit just achieved something for the first time in its 20-year history
The Reddit logo.

Reddit’s on a roll. The social media platform has just turned a profit for the first time in its 20-year history, and now boasts a record 97.2 million daily active users, marking a year-over-year increase of 47%. A few times during the quarter, the figure topped 100 million, which Reddit CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman said in a letter to shareholders had been a “long-standing milestone” for the site.

The company, which went public in March, announced the news in its third-quarter earnings results on Tuesday.

Read more
Worried about the TikTok ban? This is how it might look on your phone
TikTok splash screen on an Android phone.

The US Supreme Court has decided to uphold a law that would see TikTok banned in the country on January 19. Now, the platform has issued an official statement, confirming that it will indeed shut down unless it gets some emergency relief from the outgoing president.

“Unless the Biden Administration immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement, unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark on January 19,” said the company soon after the court’s verdict.
So, what does going dark mean?
So, far, there is no official statement on what exactly TikTok means by “going dark.” There is a lot of speculation out there on how exactly the app or website will look once TikTok shutters in the US.

Read more