Facebook agreement terms

Posted by on December 10, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments

This is a very discussed topic among photographers and the funny thing is, It’s impossible to contact Facebook to get clarification. Well, in this post I will be voicing my interpretation of these terms and why I believe them to be correct. First of all, the terms I will discuss is the copyright of photos, art, apps etc. as it’s the part I care for most.

Facebook’s terms of agreement are easily found if you scroll to the bottom of your Facebook page. If you are an eager poster, that will just about take forever. When you finally get there and klick at user agreement the message is quite clear. Facebook own’s everything you put on their page!

In exact terms: ” you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.”

For most people this doesn’t come as a surprise, even if some people still like to believe they still own their photos. Well, in some ways we all still do. Let me explain! We all have intellectual or ideological rights to our photos when it comes to other users. If for example some other Facebook user copied a photo from my page and decided to use it commercially, Facebook support me in taking action against it.

All of this is logical if you would own a company supporting a product with 1 billion users, who you have no control over. I for one would, in every way possible, make sure no one could sue me (suing is not very common here in Sweden, but in time, we’ll get there).  If Facebook would go bankrupt or were to be sold, no problem, all contents can be transferred or sold.

In the end this will not stop us from using Facebook, but as a photographer i would advice to think of what you give away. Facebook is a great site for promoting your work but perhaps you could upload photos in a lower resolution.

By the way, check out our new logo =)

Until next time!

Sven

 

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