Does Facebook own your old content?
Facebook's recent change in their Terms of Service is causing quite an uproar. To professional photographers and others who post original works, it has serious implications.
For many of you this is probably a moot point. Who cares if Facebook owns the drunk photos of you in college? But what if they then licensed the pics to classmates.com or an online dating service and your mug suddenly showed up in banner ads everywhere?
A quick summary of the change: You own your stuff as long as your account is active. However, once the account is closed the line that protected your old content has been removed from the Terms of Service, so technically Facebook now owns it.
Will they do anything with all this old content? That remains to be seen, but the possibility that they can worries many:
http://www.adotas.com/2009/02/facebook-now-owns-old-content/
http://consumerist.com/5150175/facebooks-new-terms-of-service-we-can-do-anything-we-want-with-your-content-forever
and commentary here:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/16/zuckerberg-on-who-owns-user-data-on-facebook-its-complicated/
Comments
I believe Facebook has since reverted their T.O.S. back to the original and is talking with users on how to make revisions.
I guess that shows the power of public outcry. If their users revolt and leave it would ruin them. However it's interesting that they tried to change the T.O.S. I wonder what they were planning to do?
I think the sticking point is what happens to YOUR data once you close your account.
It would seem simple enough for Facebook to delete the information, but my guess is that the FB execs just couldn't resist the upside of getting their hands on all that free creative.
Of course, their greed fomented a social media revolt, causing FB to backpedal. We'll have to see how it plays out. Watch this space!
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