1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,440
A few days ago, Facebook proudly announced that 
they'd acheieved eight billion video views a day

2
00:00:05,440 --> 00:00:09,903
That's really impressive, until you learn that in the first quarter of 2015,

3
00:00:09,903 --> 00:00:17,303
725 of the thousand most viewed videos on Facebook were stolen, amassing a total of 17 billion views.

4
00:00:17,303 --> 00:00:22,993
Sites and content aggregators steal videos from YouTube to go viral on Facebook.

5
00:00:22,993 --> 00:00:26,893
These videos go viral because Facebook is cheating.

6
00:00:26,893 --> 00:00:31,943
The rig their algorithm so that videos uploaded to their player are preferred to YouTube links

7
00:00:31,943 --> 00:00:37,453
Because users should be kept as long as possible on the site, so Facebook can show them as many ads as possible.

8
00:00:37,453 --> 00:00:40,493
This is, after all, their business model.

9
00:00:40,493 --> 00:00:42,503
But it also cheats when it comes to views

10
00:00:42,503 --> 00:00:46,993
A view is counted after three seconds, even if the video is muted

11
00:00:47,283 --> 00:00:52,803
Which means that because of auto-play, if you scroll
through your timeline slowly enough, you count as a viewer.

12
00:00:52,803 --> 00:00:56,013
That means engagement is terrible

13
00:00:56,013 --> 00:01:02,293
Compared to YouTube views, Facebook views plummet after a few seconds, because most views are not real

14
00:01:02,293 --> 00:01:06,293
But large numbers are impressive, so Facebook keeps pretending

15
00:01:06,293 --> 00:01:13,123
While this forced virality is weird, the real problem is the so-called "Freebooting", the stealing of videos

16
00:01:13,123 --> 00:01:18,253
Since Facebook prefers its own player, stolen videos reach way more people than the original.

17
00:01:18,253 --> 00:01:20,733
Lately this has happened to us more and more often

18
00:01:20,733 --> 00:01:26,673
The most recent example amassed 3.2 million views and 140 thousand shares in two days,

19
00:01:26,673 --> 00:01:31,423
While our own post reached just 100 thousand people and got shared 1000 times.

20
00:01:31,423 --> 00:01:33,813
Other creators are hit even harder.

21
00:01:33,813 --> 00:01:39,153
Smartereveryday's videos get stolen constantly, getting viewed up to 17 million times

22
00:01:39,153 --> 00:01:47,643
But even this is dwarfed by examples like Tyrese Gibson, a singer who steals viral videos like this one, with 86 million views on his Facebook page.

23
00:01:47,643 --> 00:01:50,323
He adds a link to buy his music too.

24
00:01:50,323 --> 00:01:51,463
He's not alone in this,

25
00:01:51,463 --> 00:01:56,233
A whole group of people have built their online presence around stealin other peoples' work

26
00:01:56,403 --> 00:01:59,783
This is really bad for independent creators.

27
00:01:59,783 --> 00:02:01,283
Contrary to popular belief

28
00:02:01,283 --> 00:02:04,743
Stolen content gives creators close to no exposure at all

29
00:02:04,743 --> 00:02:08,073
Only the thief and Facebook profit from this.

30
00:02:08,073 --> 00:02:12,213
Quality content takes a lot of creativity, time, and love.

31
00:02:12,213 --> 00:02:16,673
In our case, a single video literally takes hundreds of hours to make

32
00:02:16,673 --> 00:02:21,523
Even we, with more than a million subscribers, are dependent on the ads and exposure.

33
00:02:21,523 --> 00:02:26,363
Without ads, and the support of our generous Patreons, we could not make videos.

34
00:02:26,363 --> 00:02:30,783
For a small creator, a viral video can mean the difference between a career and a hobby

35
00:02:30,783 --> 00:02:37,033
On YouTube this kind of theft is not a problem because they have major safeguards that protect content from being stolen,

36
00:02:37,033 --> 00:02:42,665
Although the content ID system is far from perfect, especially for film critics and gamers.

37
00:02:42,665 --> 00:02:48,859
Facebook, on the other hand, pretends everything is fine and constantly announces one milestone after the other.

38
00:02:48,859 --> 00:02:54,627
But things are not fine. Let's look at the process of claming your copyright on Facebook in the last year:

39
00:02:54,627 --> 00:02:59,439
1. Get an email or tweet from a fan that gives you a direct link to your video.

40
00:02:59,439 --> 00:03:05,639
It's not possible to search for your videos on Facebook yourself, you depend on luck to find your stolen videos.

41
00:03:05,639 --> 00:03:11,505
2. Search for "Facebook copyright infringement" on Google, because it's actually faster this way

42
00:03:11,505 --> 00:03:15,155
3. Fill out an annoyingly long contact form.

43
00:03:15,155 --> 00:03:18,984
4. Watch the views on your stolen videos rise.

44
00:03:18,984 --> 00:03:21,723
5. Facebook finally pulls the video

45
00:03:21,723 --> 00:03:26,518
Conveniently, the video has already gained 99% of all the views it will ever get

46
00:03:26,518 --> 00:03:30,168
The thief doesn't have to fear any negative consequences at all.

47
00:03:30,168 --> 00:03:33,459
This is what successful creators have to deal with constantly,

48
00:03:33,459 --> 00:03:38,963
and on top of losing out in terms of exposure and money, it just feels like violation to be treated like that.

49
00:03:38,963 --> 00:03:42,213
In a recent statement, Facebook announced that they want to change

50
00:03:42,213 --> 00:03:47,137
But it's hard to take them seriously when it still takes days for a stolen viral video to be taken down

51
00:03:47,137 --> 00:03:50,167
and Facebook does not share the profits made from it.

52
00:03:50,173 --> 00:03:55,193
At this point, Facebook is not a partner creators look forward to working with.

53
00:03:55,193 --> 00:04:00,800
They've built their video empire on stolen content and disregard for original content creators.

54
00:04:00,800 --> 00:04:05,390
This is absolutely unnacceptable for a corporation worth billions of dollars.

55
00:04:05,394 --> 00:04:11,590
Facebook is already testing various monetization models that will give uploaders a cut of the ad revenue

56
00:04:11,590 --> 00:04:14,415
Which, with the current state of play, is troubling.

57
00:04:14,415 --> 00:04:23,012
RIght now this is just being tested with big media companies, but as creators, we don't feel like we're being asked or taken into consideration by the giant that is Facebook.

58
00:04:23,012 --> 00:04:25,803
What can you, as a viewer, do to help here?

59
00:04:25,803 --> 00:04:30,223
If you spot stolen content of FB, make a comment linking to the original content.

60
00:04:30,233 --> 00:04:34,412
Alert the original creator, because only they can file a copyright report

61
00:04:34,412 --> 00:04:37,872
Share this video or the one done by Smartereveryday

62
00:04:37,883 --> 00:04:43,960
We all want the same thing, the free internet that is based for creativity, community and great stuff

63
00:04:43,960 --> 00:04:48,920
We sincerely hope that Facebook will some become a parter, instead an obstacle to this goal

64
00:04:48,925 --> 00:04:52,658
For more indepth information, we recommend this article by Hank Green

65
00:04:52,658 --> 00:04:57,650
And if you want to support us in our quest to survive in the world of online videos. Or make more videos.

66
00:04:57,650 --> 00:05:02,110
You can do so on Patreon.com