Ok ya’ll. Lets talk. People do a lot of bandwagon jumping without reading first. Lets start by talking about something near and dear to my heart. Facebook. I love Facebook! Facebook is a great medium for sharing ideas, images, and communicating. Unfortunately, people are easily tricked, and quite willing to jump on a bandwagon even if they are not sure what is going on. I urge you to do research before you so blithely repost things. Work around this rule. If someone says you should repost something for your own good, its probably a fake. And if you are not sure, simply copy the post and search google. You will instantly know whether its a good idea to repost or not. Now, lets talk specifically about this new post going around. The text is below (hit read more if you don’t see it):
In response to the new Facebook guidelines I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of my personal details, illustrations, comics, paintings, professional photos and videos, etc. (as a result of the Berner Convention).
For commercial use of the above my written consent is needed at all times!
(Anyone reading this can copy this text and paste it on their Facebook Wall. This will place them under protection of copyright laws. By the present communiqué, I notify Facebook that it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, disseminate, or take any other action against me on the basis of this profile and/or its contents. The aforementioned prohibited actions also apply to employees, students, agents and/or any staff under Facebook’s direction or control. The content of this profile is private and confidential information. The violation of my privacy is punished by law (UCC 1 1-308-308 1-103 and the Rome Statute).Facebook is now an open capital entity. All members are recommended to publish a notice like this, or if you prefer, you may copy and paste this version. If you do not publish a statement at least once, you will be tacitly allowing the use of elements such as your photos as well as the information contained in your profile status updates.
There are a couple things wrong with this. First and foremost, Facebook does not care what you post. You are tied to what you agreed (that little I agree button that you clicked on without reading? That was important) to when you signed up for Facebook. That supersedes anything you could say or do on Facebook, sorry. Secondly, if this was true, it would not be done via Facebook post, it would be a setting in your Facebook account.
So what does Facebook’s privacy agreement actually say? Well, I’m not going to get in depth here, but just know that you do not own the images you post to Facebook. The moment you post them to Facebook, they own the photo and can distribute it with impunity. So next time you post an image, post, or communique, remember, you no longer own it. For other crazy user agreements you have probably accepted, click here to view a great cracked article about this.
