Have you seen this in your Facebook “News Feed”? “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!”
Yes, there is such a thing as the Berne (not Berner) Convention. Yes, its an international agreement regarding copyright protection. No, it doesn’t cover your birthday greetings and status updates on Facebook. When you joined Facebook (or any online service) you accepted the Terms of Use or clicked “Agree” on an End-User License Agreement. I will bet that most of you never read the contract you entered in; you just scrolled down until the button to “Accept” or “Agree” was available to click on. That’s pretty normal behavior in this busy, online world, so don’t feel bad.
Robert Scoble: “If you are posting about copyright on Facebook and you haven't done your research, you are an idiot.”
I’m only bringing this up because it’s privacy hoax season again on Facebook. Every time Facebook updates their privacy policy or user agreement (as they did just before Thanksgiving), there’s a wave of posts on Facebook from users intent on “protecting their posts” with a copyright. The problem is the contract you are in with Facebook doesn’t work that way. They wrote the terms, you accepted them and now you want to change them by displaying new content. How would you know they had clicked “Accept” on those proposed changes? In fact, they won’t and they don’t. Nothing you post is going to change the agreement you have entered in so you’re merely displaying your naiveté and ability to cut and paste on your status line.
Facebook spokesperson Andrew Noyes: “…when you post things like photos to Facebook, we do not own them…you grant Facebook permission to use, distribute, and share the things you post, subject to the terms and applicable privacy settings."
Please don’t take my word for this. I don’t claim to be a legal expert, though the two business law classes I took in grad school were great. And before you start complaining about privacy on a social networking service you can easily stop using, make sure you’re already using the right privacy settings to keep your posts and activity limited to those you wish to share in them. Click the down arrow (upside down triangle) next to your name and the word “Home” on Facebook, select Privacy Settings and make your selections as appropriate to your needs. For example, I limit my posts to “Friends”. You can do far more than that, such as limit old posts, but be sure to read carefully any warnings before you do so.
Facebook: "There is a rumor circulating that Facebook is making a change related to ownership of users' information or the content they post to the site. This is false. Anyone who uses Facebook owns and controls the content and information they post, as stated in our terms. They control how that content and information is shared. That is our policy, and it always has been. Click here to learn more - www.facebook.com/policies"
Read more in ABCnews, Slate, ITWorld, PCWorld, NYDailyNews, Forbes, and of course on the myth-busting web resource Snopes.com (currently so beset by requests on this topic, it can take a while for the page to load.)