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"Your video was removed because it appears to contain copyrighted material owned by a third party. If you think that we've removed this video by mistake, you can file a counter notice by following the link provided in the warning email."

If you have never received one of these Emails / Notifications from Facebook, consider yourself lucky. 

Facebook Videos are becoming more and more popular. A lot of YouTube stars have turned to Facebook. Their high-performing Videos, mixed with professional content, means it was only a matter of time before Facebook implemented a copyright-scanning feature. Every Video that is posted on Facebook is pre-scanned and checked for any infringing content before the video shows up on your Timeline or Newsfeed. If the Video you're posting contains any infringing content, it won't be published and you will receive a warning.

The pre-scanning is focused mostly on the audio part of the video. That means if your video contains music that belongs to someone you did not get permission from, your video won't get published. In a few words, if your video has as a song you did not create as its background music, don't bother posting it.

A lot of content creators don't solely rely on Facebook's copyright-scanner. To protect even more their digital content, they watermark their videos, which might be a good indication that you may not want to risk and use their videos without permission. 

If you want to protect your digital content, you can automatically watermark your social media videos using Publer. No editing skills required!

Back to videos that may get you in trouble. Even if your video does not contain any music, it doesn't end here. Anyone is able to report content that they believe violates or infringes their copyright. Facebook takes these reports very seriously. For example, let's say you found a funny video on the Internet and decided to upload it to your Page. Suppose it became viral. The person that actually made the video sees the video you uploaded without his permission and notices that nowhere he was given credit for. He reports your video to Facebook.

If he proves to Facebook that he holds all the rights to that video, Facebook will take your video down and send you a warning. Unfortunately there's no way for you to know if a video is copyright protected or not, unless you seek legal advice.

Besides making sure the video you're posting is not copyrighted, you also need to make sure if follows the Facebook Community Standards. If someone reports your video for breaking Facebook Policies, they will take your video down and give you a warning.

What Happens If I Am Caught Posting A Copyrighted Video

First of all, Facebook will remove the video you uploaded. They will also send you a warning. If that's your first time being caught, the warning will simply ask you to not do it again. If you repeatedly infringe someone's copyright or upload videos that don't follow the Facebook Community Standards, Facebook will ban your account from posting videos. Depending on its severeness the ban may be temporarily (up to 30 days) or permanently. If you keep uploading copyrighted videos or videos that don't follow the Facebook Community Standards on a Fan Page, Facebook may unpublish that Page.

What Videos Shouldn't I Upload

• Music videos & TV shows: definitely NO. They won't even pass Facebook's pre-scan.
• Pranks: a big NO. People that do pranks, do that for a living and they won't allow you to use their work without their permission.
• Celebrity videos: another NO. Celebrities sign contracts with companies that are allowed to use their image.
• Food, recipes and other arts & crafts videos: sadly NO. Again, they do that for a living.
• Videos that don't follow the Facebook Community Standards

So What Can I Upload Then

Home videos, cute animal videos, videos that don't have any watermarks, or simply get creative and create your own video. If you decide to upload a video that you think is copyrighted or that might get you in trouble, try citing the source or give credit to the owner. Even if you do, it's not guaranteed that they won't report it.

Disclaimer

Use these guidelines at your own risk. We don't guarantee that these guidelines will keep you safe nor do we take any responsibility for anything that might happen as we are not affiliated with Facebook. These guidelines are simply here to help you minimize Facebook Policies and copyrights violations based on a research we conducted.

You can also take advantage of Publer's new Superpower: AutoDeletion of Posts. If you believe a Video is copyrighted or against Facebook Community Standards, simply post that Video for a limited time (i.e. 1 or 2 days) using Publer.