In this week's lecture we discussed the evolution of Web.2.0. During this discussion the question arose of who owns the content you put on the internet. Personally I have never thought about it before and to be perfectly honest I never really cared. My entire life is plastered on Facebook. My page is saturated with photos, events, comments and discussions for the world to see. Even though my page is set to private, after diving into the concept of privacy on the internet I have quickly learnt that my information really isn't that private.
In 2009 online suspicion arose when Facebook updated its terms and deleted a provision which stated that “users could remove their content at any time at which time the license would expire”. It also added a new section that explained that Facebook would retain user's content and licenses after an account was terminated. The change to the terms went unnoticed until a blog columnist shone light on the changes and interpreted them to mean “anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later.”
As you can imagine this post attracted a great deal of attention, being as Facebook is widely used by millions around the world. It drew the question of who actually owns the information a person uploads on these social-networking websites. Even when Mark Zuckerberg released on his blog “that people own their information and control who they share it with has remained constant” it still makes you wonder who can access your information.
The Terms of Service of Facebook state:-
You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof.
So basically, anything you upload, write, comment or now even delete is the property of Facebook. So basically my entire existence is owned by the Mulit-million dollar corporation - GREAT (insert sarcasim here)!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/technology/internet/17facebook.html
http://www.facebook.com/policy.php
Who has the right to use your creations?
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