With the new user agreement at Facebook, my attention was drawn to this line…
You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof.
What implications does this have for my blog and me feeding my blog into Facebook? I wasn’t sure so I started clicking around. This post seems to have the latest info but it still doesn’t really answer (at least in language that I can understand) if I post an article, artwork, or song that is originally mine – can Facebook take it and use it for their profit?
I’ve asked the Facebook blog/owner guru people with no answer yet. Until they do…I’m not importing my posts here into Facebook anymore.
UPDATE: Rob Williams wrote this to help clear the mud.
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6 Comments
i read a little bit about this earlier. the guy who created facebook said that this is more of a disclaimer, reminding users that their information is subject to use by others (much in the same way that an email would work or other social networking sites. even if you delete those accounts, any information sent from those accounts still exists and is able to be used by the possessors of that information in whichever way they see fit).
i don’t know if that answers any questions or calms and fears.
sounds like big brother to me. we all knew it was coming; it was just a matter of how long.
Indeed the hot topic. However, I’m not all that concerned. Read this post (and my comment on it)
http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/all-your-face-are-belong-to-us-facebooks-terms-of-service/ and then read this one http://scobleizer.com/2009/02/17/ownership_facebook/ for some perspective on this side of it all
Aw, after posting that comment, I went on and typed up an article about it: http://orangejack.com/facebooks-new-tos-principle-understand/
Did you notice how fast Facebook reversed their latest update? Opinion does matter…but I am with you, I think I will not be importing my blog posts for awhile either.
Well, ultimately, even if it’s on your own server someone can take the content and use it…no different than if you published a magazine or newspaper. Ultimately copyrights are self-enforced.
In the facebook case, you apparently give up your right to enforce though.
FYI: just saw this on facebook today:
“Over the past few days, we have received a lot of feedback about the new terms we posted two weeks ago. Because of this response, we have decided to return to our previous Terms of Use while we resolve the issues that people have raised. For more information, visit the Facebook Blog.”