Facebook Acquires Source3

Facebook announced that it has acquired content rights management startup Source3. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Source3, which was founded in 2014, plans to be the world’s first platform for end-to-end management of intellectual property related to user-generated content (UGC). The company provides IP recognition, licensing and rights administration services to content creators, marketplaces and brands, enabling monetization of user content across physical and digital products. Source3 had previously raised $4 million in seed funding, led by Contour Venture Partners.                                 

According to TechCrunch, Source3’s team and technology could augment Facebook’s rights manager software, which works in a manner similar to that of YouTube’s content ID technology. Both allow creators to “fingerprint” their videos and either block unauthorized uploads of them or collect revenue shared from unofficial copies. Source3 could potentially help brands and creators identify and derive revenue from unapproved appearances of their content or intellectual property.