Facebook has its feet wet in different industries beyond social media. In addition to serving as a platform for news, video game, and television, it now is getting involved in the music industry. Particularly, it's cracking down on copyright policies.
According to the Verge, the major tech company signed a deal with International Copyright Enterprise Operations (ICE), a London-based online rights company with a music catalog of over 31 million.
The partnership, which includes 290,000 rights-holders across 160 territories, will help provide royalty payments whenever an ICE-represented song is used on Facebook, Instagram, Oculus, and Messenger. The deal does not include WhatsApp, since the app does not require music licensing agreements for private messaging.
ICE will work with Facebook to develop a reporting system in the event of copyright infringement for the platforms the deal does cover.
While Facebook has signed deals with other United States music companies, such as Sony Music and Universal Music Group, this is the first multi-territorial license it has ever participated in. This deal opens up the possibility for licensing in other continents beyond North America and Europe.
In related Facebook news, the social media networking giant—which is desperately attempting to stay relevant in response to a drop in daily user engagement in the United States—has been testing out a "downvote" reaction button for its users, similar to Reddit.
