Why YouTube and Facebook Are Letting Video Creators Make Money When Their Content Is Pirated

As graphical images surpass text and narrative as the best way of connecting with consumers, YouTube and Facebook are recognizing the need to incentivize those who create such content to use their platforms.

Ownership rights have become a competitive advantage in the battle for attention and, ultimately economic supremacy. JL

Kurt Wagner reports in Re/code:

Creators won’t want to hand over their videos if there’s no way to protect them, or at least monetize them. YouTube already gives rights holders an option to monetize their pirated videos instead of just taking them down.

Facebook is giving video creators a chance to make some money when others on the network pirate their content without permission.

Facebook first rolled out what it calls “Rights Manager” a year ago so that video creators could use video matching software to automatically detect when their video was ripped off and re-posted. It’s the same kind of technology that YouTube offers, called Content ID, to protect video creators.

At the time Rights Manager launched on Facebook, video owners had two options: They could either take the pirated video down, or leave it up for the added reach.

Now Facebook has a third option: Make some money. The company says it will let video owners generate revenue from mid-roll ads that run during their pirated video. Facebook says the video owner can claim “a share of the money generated” from the ads, and we assume Facebook also takes a cut. (We’ve asked for clarification.)

It’s an important step for Facebook, which wants to be a premium video destination but has had issues with users pirating content in the past. Creators won’t want to hand over their videos if there’s no way to protect them, or at least monetize them. YouTube already gives rights holders an option to monetize their pirated videos instead of just taking them down.

Facebook knows that, and that’s why it’s pushing Rights Manager at the same time it’s cutting deals with publishers for more premium video content.