Sometimes people like to complain about facebook (while on facebook), 'blah blah I can't find my messages, blah blah blah', that is not where I am going here. In fact, most people who complain about those facebook updates probably have no idea what is in store for them now on the popular social networking site.
As of the most recent change to the Terms of Service, facebook has decided they would like to be able to make money off of all the photos you have uploaded over the years of having an account with them.
Loads of professional photographers are in an uproar, well those that had facebook pages anyways. These images they worked so hard at creating, and possibly protecting from unauthorized use, are now authorized for use, provided you pay facebook - not the author/creator.
Am I susceptible to this? Definitely. I've been on facebook since 2007 with a personal profile and business profile since 2009 - I've been sharing the images I worked pretty hard to create, and often tons of them. I've always been a little wary of the facebook world, but understood the reach you could achieve with it - so luckily, I've only uploaded images at about 900px on the long side at their largest for the longest time. I've already been victim to image theft on multiple occasions, and understand its just a fact of being a modern photographer to a degree. I could spin my wheels chasing the problem, or I could minimize the impact it has on me by not sharing more than I am afraid to lose.
What do the terms say?
here it is:
"For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it."
- copied from facebook terms, October 2013.Very potentially, if you are a follower of mine on facebook, you may see my photos drop back down to a lower size, like the 600px I used to share in my first couple years on Facebook - don't worry - if this is the case, I'll make sure to be sharing links to higher resolutions off of facebook - like here on my blog.
Consider that my warning to everyone sharing photos out there.
Yes, your summer vacation pictures of you in a bikini quite possibly may be sold for advertising to someone on the other side of the world, or maybe already have - there would be no way of you knowing.
C Gardiner Photography | Promote Your Page Too
