Gaps in Meta policy to protect copyright material, says judge
NEW DELHI: Delhi high court Wednesday asked Meta to explain the criteria it follows to grant users access to its copyright management tool, Rights Manager, for Facebook and Instagram.A content creator moved HC alleging that genuine creators such as him were denied access to the copyright tool and, thus, were unable to protect their original content whose ownership was claimed by scammers using Rights Manager.Justice Anup J Bhambhani criticised the platform’s restrictive policy. “Why does everybody not have access to it then? It is like giving the key to the robber and not to the owner of the house,” it said.The judge said there appeared to be “some chinks in the armour, some loopholes” in the Meta policy on safeguarding the copyright material.Rights Manager enables pre-approved users to identify content uploaded on Facebook and Instagram and stake ownership as it permits them to monitor, block or act against such content.“Rights Manager is a video, audio and image-matching tool that we developed for rights holders of all sizes — from individual creators to media publishers, sports leagues, music labels and others — to identify and manage their content on Facebook and Instagram, including live videos,” the platform told the court.
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Meta submitted before HC that the copyright strikes against the plaintiff stood reversed and whatever content was removed has also been restored. It said the plaintiff’s accounts had never been suspended and remained accessible.HC then issued summons in the suit and posted the matter for hearing on Sept 24 along with a connected petition filed by another content creator.The second plea has alleged that the creator’s Instagram account was suspended following a copyright strike that was subsequently found to be false. The connected proceedings will also examine issues concerning the authority of social media platforms to suspend user profiles based on copyright infringement claims.
