Facebook criticised for copyright stance
Facebook has come under fire from photographers after it emerged that the social networking website claims a licence over any images posted onto the site.
Terms and conditions state that 'by posting user content to any part of the site, you automatically grant to the company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such user content for any purpose on or in connection with the site or the promotion thereof'.
The discovery has sparked anger among users, who have been asking for the terms to be modified.
'To summarise the key part of the terms and conditions, Facebook can do what they like with your photos "for any purpose on or in connection with the site or the promotion thereof",' Charles Swan, a partner with media law firm Swan Turton, tells BJP. 'This isn't an unlimited licence. It wouldn't allow Facebook to set up an image library to sell users' photos commercially.'
However, Swan adds that the licence is very broad. 'It would allow Facebook to use your photo in an ad for itself without consulting you or paying you. It's therefore unsurprising that there's a group of Facebook users who object to this.'
Facebook has come under attack in France and Sweden for its use and management of personal content. It was also at the centre of a criminal case in Canada after Facebook photos of a stabbing victim, Stefanie Rengel, were used by newspapers.
Greg Boyd-Bell, city editor of The Globe and Mail, which used photos from personal pages on the site, tells BJP: 'As far as we're concerned, those photos are in the public domain if they're posted on Facebook. We do not credit them'.
'In the case of the Rengel stabbing, by the next day friends established a Facebook group and started posting pictures of her,' he adds. 'We contacted some of them, but mainly for reporting purposes, and in the course of the conversation we might ask them for a high-resolution of the photo, at which point they are credited.'
However, Swan believes this is nonsense. 'Photos posted online are not automatically in the public domain. The copyright is still held by the owner of the photo.'
Facebook did not return calls for comment.
