Fortunately, disclosing copyrighted material on Facebook doesn`t necessarily have a big impact on the copyright owner`s revenue, although the site has the potential to amplify a single post, so it could go viral for millions of account holders. The risk of being sued by a copyright owner is, of course, increased if a copyright infringement goes viral – after all, many infringements are unlikely to be brought to the copyright owner`s attention – and have a negative impact on the copyright owner`s income. But that doesn`t mean it`s okay to infringe copyright, even if there`s no significant loss of revenue, and the copyright owner has every right to object if you ignore their right to control the use that`s made of something they`ve created. Often, a YouTube video is posted with a warning that says, «I didn`t do this and I don`t own it.» But such a disclaimer, which recognizes the author and/or copyright owner, does not in itself authorize the poster to reproduce the video content in whole or in part, as YouTube expressly recommends. (See also YouTube`s Copyright Center.) Press Ctrl-V to paste the item`s URL into the Update Status field. Wait for Facebook to analyze the entire document and display the summary. After that, you can remove the URL from the post and enter what you want to say about the article. Facebook has a page that talks about copyright in general, and it`s pretty clear that it won`t offer you individual legal advice beyond «If you`re not sure, don`t post it on Facebook,» and that it will respond to complaints of copyright infringement. If you find an article interesting and want to share it with your friends, you can add it as a status update.
When you post an article in your Facebook status, a summary with a link to the original article is included in the Facebook News Feed. Your friends can read the abstract and, if they find it interesting, click on the link to access the full and original article. YouTube`s terms of service are available here. If you`re thinking of posting something there that you don`t own the copyright to, be sure to read it. You should probably also read the company`s perspective on fair dealing and in particular the section on fair dealing myths. This may sound harsh when applied to a temporary post of a photo or a scanned newspaper article on Facebook – ok, that`s hard – but the principle applies. I see a huge amount of material, almost certainly copyrighted, reproduced on social media (including a significant amount of my own material that has certainly not been published in the public domain). I think we can probably assume that most people who post such material on Facebook or YouTube won`t go to the copyright owner and ask for permission, even though it`s possible to do so.
Most of the time, of course, they do not mean harm or offense and do not necessarily cause significant damage. In some cases, the owner of the work in question may actually benefit from the fact that it (or part of it) is more accessible, but in other cases, the author or owner may be deprived of legitimate income as well as the right to decide what use of the content he owns is used. Basically, any creative work available in recorded or rated form in most media is protected by copyright (at least in most jurisdictions). I`ve seen suggested that this doesn`t apply to newspaper articles, but it`s wishful thinking about the number of scanned articles and photos posted on Facebook. The original material is automatically protected by copyright in any country that is a signatory to the Berne Convention (see below), unless the author expressly waives such rights. It doesn`t matter if you don`t make money from it or like many other posters do the same. The purchase of a CD or MP3 does not make you the copyright owner, but only of that single copy, without automatic right to copy or redistribute it. It is also not a question of recording it yourself (for example from a TV show with a VCR). Of course, the same goes for other media such as magazines and books. Recently, I saw a request from someone who wanted to republish an interesting article on a Facebook page, but was worried about the legal implications.
Here is a summary of the main problems as I understand them. As an author, publisher and researcher, this is a subject that interests and worries me: not only to assert my own rights over the material I create, but also to avoid violations of the rights of others. Click «Publish» to publish the article in the Facebook status. A summary with the image and a link to the full article will be inserted. When it comes to a possible infringement of intellectual property rights (IPR) in Facebook users` posts, the responsibility clearly lies with them and not the company But what do the social media sites themselves say about copyright? When it comes to your own use of the material posted by followers, some sources might give you the impression that you might as well put your life in an envelope and post it on social media sites with a note that says, «Keep going, do what you want.» I saw a comment on one of my articles on copyright issues that was published elsewhere that said: A large amount of copyrighted material is posted on social media by people who have not asked permission from the copyright owner. Sometimes this is not feasible at all, and often no harm or insult is meant, but authors or copyright holders (not necessarily the same people or organizations) may be deprived of legitimate income as well as the right to decide what use of the content they own is used. You may feel like it doesn`t matter because «it`s just Facebook,» but the copyright owner may disagree. It`s not that there isn`t also a lot of content that can be freely and legitimately distributed. It should be remembered that there is also a large amount of material that is in the public domain or uses some form of license that easily covers informal or non-commercial use. «Everyone who uses Facebook owns and controls the content and information they post as specified in our Terms. They control how that content and information is shared. That is our policy, and it always has been.
David Harley, Senior Researcher at ESET, explores and discusses the most important issues surrounding copyright and social media. However, this does not mean that all these things are not necessarily protected. For example, while an idea isn`t protected by copyright, it could be patented, and it`s a box of worms you really don`t want to open if you don`t need to. (Maybe I`ll talk about it another time.) Non-commercial use is not automatically «fair use». Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and cannot provide legal advice. Legislation concerning intellectual property (intellectual property), copyright, patents, trademarks, etc. is a complex issue (and is largely ignored and difficult to apply on the Internet). So, you shouldn`t consider anything I`m saying here as authoritative advice, but it can give you some ideas on where to get more information. I hope, of course, that those who have never really thought about it will realize that we may not always be as respectful of other people`s work on social media as we should be.
«The essence of the Facebook service is to make it easier, on your behalf, to share the content you want to share, subject to the control that lets you know where and to whom it is shared. Facebook considers this license agreement to be necessary for Facebook to provide this service. And it`s an agreement: if you use the service, you`ve accepted it, even if you haven`t read it. This is how the contractual obligation works. A derivative work – that is, a work based on or derived from an existing work – can be independently protected by copyright by incorporating (in part or in full) the existing work and adding new and copyrighted content. In principle, however, only the owner of the original work can create the derivative work (or authorize another person to do so). But what can`t be protected by copyright at all? This may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but in general: it is the expression of ideas that is protected by copyright, not the ideas or concepts themselves.