Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Facebook and copyright law

A friend directed me to this article about Facebook.

Facebook, apparently, can use your photos, videos, or any other content you upload on your profile in any way they want, even after you deactivate your account.

Now I remember in Prof. Langvardt's class, I learned a copyright on creative work is applied automatically when the work is created. No one can use your work without your permission, of course, even if it's just facebook photos and you haven't registered for a copyright. You are automatically protected.

So I wonder about the legal intersection of these two policies. I'm sure Facebook is a responsibly run company and they wouldn't have legal policies that weren't well researched, and they're so high profile, it'd be too high of a PR liability if they were to actually use a user's photos inappropriately. But out of principle, I bet their users aren't aware what they're giving up rights to.

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