There has been a trend on Facebook, in the last few days, to see a number of “My Copyright” posts.
It would appear that Facebook has come over all God Like and have decided that they can use your Pictures, your posts, your intellectual property, as they see fit.
What worries me about this is that these posts seem (and I apologise if this is incorrect) to cite American Statute. Not that there is anything wrong with that but as I live here in the UK, and that Facebook, I believe, also has a UK presence, they should also abide with UK and European Law as well.
But that IS NOT the real point.
Facebook is a service that I CHOOSE to use and, anything I add to that service, is for the use of, or the entertainment of, the people I choose (allow?) to befriend me on the said service.
The bottom line, be it Facebook or any other Social Networking service, is that even though I choose to post those “articles” via this service, they belong to ME (and, by my implication, anyone who is part of that image) and should not be used without my (or their) specific instructions.
I tend to be one of those people that tries to restrict who can see my photos, my video’s and the like (as a general rule). If they are family photos, I want them to stay as family photos. If I want the whole world to see my efforts, I will adjust the settings like wise.
But even then I will be allowing the world to VIEW my efforts. It is NO and authorisation to take them, steal them, for their own use.
I do realise that there are “issues” with this belief.
Many Stories, Selfies and “proper” Photographs appear on the likes of Twitter every day.
But, particularly on Twitter, it is my belief that things are slightly different.
It is implied by use of Twitter (and to that extent – Facebook) that by publishing these musings, these photos in such a Public manner they are open (to an extent) to be openly used by all and sundry. That said, Twitter doesn’t take those images for their own use (as far as I know) and, it