Does Facebook’s Copyright Policy Worry You?

Are you one of the 400 million users on Facebook? If so, have you read the fine print? It states the following:

You retain the copyright to your content.

It also says:

When you post User Content to the Site, you authorize and direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in order to facilitate the posting and storage of the User Content on the Site. By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to 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, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing.

Pretty scary stuff if you ask me. I’d be wary to sign an agency contract like this unless I knew that I was getting something in return, like royalties on my images. With Facebook, what do I get? Nothing, aside from a place to park my images so that my friends and fans can see them.

This language has many people worried, and it’s just another reason that people are becoming wary of Facebook. For photographers, it basically means that they have free reign of your images once you add them to your page.

Should you be worried? Generally, I would say no. If you include your copyright watermark on your photos, then anytime they’re shared and passed around, your name will show up with the image. With the incredible reach that Facebook offers, you should relish in the free and possible viral advertising you could get if one of your photos makes the rounds. Also, Facebook is not mandatory, and you can always choose not to be a member.

However, you should be concerned if you shoot for or license photos to a client who intends to publish them on Facebook. With more companies putting up Facebook pages, assignments to create images for those pages may continue to become commonplace. The tough part is trying to price those images fairly. Usually, when you shoot photos for a client, you price according to usage and circulation. Also, with commercial photos that are shot specifically for Facebook usage, you’re not only granting your clients usage rights, you’re automatically agreeing to all rights in the language above.

So how should you deal with this? You could price your images/job based on how many fans the site currently has. Although that can obviously change, the reality is that Facebook and social media moves quickly. What’s posted today is long gone within a few days, and by next month, it’s pretty much history. That is unless your photo experiences viral status and it get seen my millions. You could try and negotiate to have your name attached to any images that your client posts on Facebook. Use the above information to explain and educate your client, it could be a good bargaining tool.

Finally, if a photo of yours ends up on Facebook that you don’t want up there, you can contact Facebook directly to have it removed.

Facebook and social media is here to stay and we’ll have to learn to price these uses just as we’ve had to learn to price other types of jobs in the past. It’s still in its relative infancy, and in fact, when I tried to price images on two of my stock agency websites, “Social Media” was not available as an option. If you contribute to a stock agency, you might call and ask your editor how they price these kinds of uses. I’ll do the same and get back to you if I learn anything.

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Dan Bailey is a professional adventure, outdoor and travel photographer based in Anchorage, Alaska. You can follow his own blog at danbaileyphoto.com/blog and see his daily Facebook updates at facebook.com/danbaileyphoto

Tagged as: Copyright, Facebook, Photographer, Photography, social media, Tips