A Cautionary re posting on Facebook

On 17 Feb 2009, Art Wolfe made an entry on his blog, entitled, "Facebook and Photographer Rights", where he points out finding that Facebook had made a major change in its user licensing terms that appear downright confiscatory regarding rights to posted material -- including photographs. If you contemplate posting your copyrighted material on Facebook (why, I can't imagine!), better read the fine print first.

Subsequent comments by others on Art Wolfe's blog indicate that Facebook may have retracted the language in the face of a firestorm of protest. However, who would be crazy enough to trust an outfit that would try to pull a stunt like that in the first place?

Here's the link to Art's posting, which includes quotes of the offending language that Facebook inserted (apparently unannounced) in their user license agreement:

http://blog.artwolfe.com/?p=154

Good to know, thanks for the information!

Thanks for the heads-up Craig. I don't use Facebook though. It seems I was a generation too early.

Craig, Thanks for the info!

The terms of service are still bad---they are just not as bad. I would not post an image on Facebook that I did not want used w/o permission...

I started using FB for some networking right before they made the change to the Terms of Use. I get asked now and then why I don't have wonderful photos on my FB profile and the reply is that until FB gets their TOU straightened out, I won't be posting many photos at all, and certainly nothing of any value.

I don't upload any photos on there other than BS images...I only link to pics from my other sites which is outside the scope of their nutty terms.....

This made national news a few weeks back. They claimed stupid but since lawyers write this stuff, I don't think that is the case.

Thanks for bringing that up, I have been asked a few times, but never had time to look at it.